Founded in 2005, the Silmarillion Writers' Guild exists for discussions of and creative fanworks based on J.R.R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion and related texts. We are a positive-focused and open-minded space that welcomes fans from all over the world and with all levels of experience with Tolkien's works. Whether you are picking up Tolkien's books for the first time or have been a fan for decades, we welcome you to join us!
New Challenge: Bollywood This month's challenge offers songs, films, and tropes from Bollywood, the world's largest film industry based out of India, as prompts for fanworks.
Cultus Dispatches: Fandom Chocolate … or Authors Love Comments Tolkien Fanfiction Survey data provides insight into how comments benefit authors and which authors are most impacted by a lack of comments, with a digression on authors' perspectives one-click feedback like kudos.
A Sense of History: Passing Ships As Tolkien's characters in various texts gaze out to the sea, what do they see? What is brought by the ships coming out of the West?
Beta-Reader List Now Available The beta-reader list and profiles have been moved into our new system and are available again.
Nimruzimir, a natural philosopher recently out of his apprenticeship, hardly considers himself very important to anyone, least of all his colleagues. When his strange, prophetic fits bring him to the attention of the High Priest, however, he may find that his existence is less superfluous than…
This is my new poetical attempt to add my own interpretation to Tolkien's Cosmology as to Eru's Creation and the Valar's minds and behind-the-scene providence reasons and mechanisms.. I often review Eä as part of our own world, just in another dimension, this is why I have always seriously…
Current Challenge
Bollywood
Prompts this month are films, songs, and tropes from India's dazzling film industry, Bollywood. Read more ...
Random Challenge
Pride
Create a fanwork using a prompt from an LGBTQIA+ person, choosing from music, art, poetry, and quotations. Read more ...
Tolkien Fanfiction Survey data shows that authors view comments as driving their motivation to create fanfiction. However, perception of comments by authors is part of a larger shift in fandom around how and how often fans interact with each other.
The arrival and departure of ships across the Great Sea carries mythic significance for the peoples of Middle-earth. The image of ships crossing out of and back into a mysterious West appears as well in Beowulf and is alluded to in Tolkien's tower analogy in his lecture "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics," where the tower allows those who climb it to observe the passage of the ships.
Tolkien Fanfiction Survey data shows that while most authors self-identify as taking their craft seriously, a growing subset of authors may be pushing that norm.
He and Diamond were visiting, though Pippin had been disappearing every afternoon, and taking Frodo and Elanor and most other lads and lasses in the neighborhood with him—though why they couldn’t use Pippin’s own pony, Sam couldn’t imagine.
So gathered they were to Bree, what lieutenants who could be spared, from their scattered watches west and east, for their chieftain had returned from his long sojourn in lands godless and mountains strange.
Aragorn returns from the South to tells his tales. Halbarad listens.
July challenge at tolkienshortfanworks posted
The tolkienshortfanworks challenge for July has been posted to the Dreamwidth community. The thematic challenge is: original character or unnamed canon character; the formal challenge: fixed length of multiple of 50 words. New participants welcome.
Teitho June/July Challenge: Mentor
The June/July prompt for the Teitho challenge is "mentor" and invites fanworks about this relationship in Tolkien's works.
Scribbles & Drabbles 2024
A chill Tolkien event, where artists make art, and authors write little stories in response. Begins in June and ends in November.
Subscribe to the SWG Newsletter
Comments
The Silmarillion Writers' Guild is more than just an archive--we are a community! If you enjoy a fanwork or enjoy a creator's work, please consider letting them know in a comment.
Oh, I love the bickering of these two! They both score some very good points, but I had to laugh out loud when Maglor suggested slamming a door in Morgoth's face. He truly is his father's son! XD
No, Maglor Fëanorion would never take a competition too seriously or too far. Clearly inventing a whole new language was the most sensible solution. (I also love his definition of hubris.)
Of course he wouldn't take a competition too seriously! That's something Celegorm or Curufin would do, not Maglor. (It is the most suitable definition of hubris for most of the Noldor, tbh. They're bad at that one word.)
Thank you! I'm glad you like the mention of Tinfang - he was supposed to make an actual appearance, but apparently discretion is his motto. He might be only sensible character related to this story. :P
Sorry for the late reply! For Tinfang I lean towards writing fic, though I suppose I could write meta for this month's challenge - biography is something I would love to see done, but will freely admit I would struggle to write for that obscure of a character. :P
Well, if Tolkien did it all the time, why not Maglor? (Oh, and Sauron did it, too, but I'm sure Maglor can go one better than Black Speech.)
I enjoyed this and I particularly like the analysis of the linguistic situation in Valinor and the point being made how the underlying assumptions aren't all that justified, historically.
I hope Daeron, Maglor, and Tinfang win. Although of course the competing team could be artistically brilliant, even if their linguistic arguments are dubious!
Maglor's language is probably far more artistic and better constructed than Black Speech, and if asked Maglor would probably have some comment about "Of course it's better than what Sauron came up with, just look at the rings - Celebrimbor managed to combine aesthetics and power, while Sauron just had a gold band with words inscriped on it and brute force." :P
I'm glad you enjoyed the analysis of the linguistic situation in Valinor.
They probably do win! It doesn't seem a good sign for the competng team's skills that the rules are designed to make it easier for them.
I totally understand that! Although at least in this case, it would give you a fair amount of, shall we say, artistic license... But in a seriousness, I'd love to see whatever you write on Tinfang; I'm sure it'll be amazing!
I'm not a singer (unless you count singing along in the car), but I totally agree with his point - for one thing, I enjoy songs myself that are in languages I don't even understand. Why shouldn't there be songs in every language?
Comments
The Silmarillion Writers' Guild is more than just an archive--we are a community! If you enjoy a fanwork or enjoy a creator's work, please consider letting them know in a comment.