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.
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.
[Writing] No Time Have I by Flora-lass
A Silmarillion acrostic.
[Writing] I called it Fate that I should fail by AdmirableMonster
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…
[Writing] All of you by chrissystriped
Elrond and Celebrían celebrate their anniversary with their family.
[Writing] Lament for the Singer by daughterofshadows
A short thing about Maglor, death and grieving.
[Writing] Cosmological Poems of Arda by AaronAzrael
I would like to share my revelations of Tolkien's Universe in the form of narrative and emotional poems.
[Writing] Eä's Redemption by AaronAzrael
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…
[Artwork] Map of Valinor by Aprilertuile
My newly drawn map of Aman, as complete as I could make it.
Bollywood
Prompts this month are films, songs, and tropes from India's dazzling film industry, Bollywood. Read more ...
Holiday Party
No matter if you're in the Northern or Southern hemisphere, it's a time of year to think about holidays. Whether you're bundling up in blankets or slipping a swimsuit into your suitcase, we invite you to an SWG holiday party! Read more ...
Fandom Chocolate … or Authors Love Comments by Dawn Walls-Thumma
[]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.
Passing Ships by Simon J. Cook
[]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.
Fanfiction and the Serious Business of Writer's Craft by Dawn Walls-Thumma
[]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.
[Writing] Staging a Battle by StarSpray
[]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.
[Writing] From whose bourn no traveller returns by losselen
[]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.
[Writing] Sand Sorcery by StarSpray
[]It is well known that Psamathos does not leave his cove. He does not like to get his feet wet, and prefers to spend his days dozing under the sun.
Fellowship of the Fics: Summer Stories 2024
Fellowship of the Fics offers four weeks of summer-themed prompts during the month of July.
Elrond Week 2024
Elrond Week is a fandom event dedicated to Elrond Peredhel that will run from July 10th to July 16th on Tumblr.
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.
July 2024 Call for Papers and Proposals
Conferences and publications that have open calls for papers and proposals in July 2024.
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.
This is well written-- and an explanation for Maedhros's reasoning I don't think I have come across before.
Thank you! As I mentioned in my response to Oshun I was trying to work out his reasoning for myself. Tolkien gives us very little other than the fact that he chose to go. I actually came to this from my other story because I was frustrated with why the brothers just accepted his fate. There had to be a reason for that behavior--Fingon certainly did not have such a passive response to it. These gaps that Tolkien leaves us are just begging for interpretation. I must say that writing both of these stories gave me even more sympathy for these two brothers and got me all emotional about these events again. Thanks for reading and for the review!
Interesting concept and well-argued. I'm not sure it's one I would go with, but that's the fun of fanfiction seeing how others imagine the motivations and backstories that we are not given by the author.
Thank you. It's hard to determine what his reasoning was to even consider what seems to me to be such an obviously disastrous choice. He had options. He could have sent Makalaurë. Or any of his brothers. Or refused to parley. Grief and stress have unexpected effects on even the most brilliant of minds. I wrote this after my other story about Maglor telling the brothers what Maedhros had done (They Choose the Path) because I was trying to work it out for myself and trying to rationalize why Maglor would be so seemingly passive about his captivity. To me it's a fascinating time in the Silmarillion and one that leads to far more questions than answers.
You are definitely right--the questions outweigh the answers. And, as they say, "hindsight is 20x20."
The questions give us much room for interpretation and thus more fan fiction! Thanks so much for reading and reviewing. You and Himring are two of my favorite Silmarillion fic authors and I have a tremendous amount of respect for your work.
This was wonderful! It is so intense, driven by the dialogue; I could not stop reading till I reached the end. I will echo Oshun and Himring that Maedhros's reasoning is not an approach I've seen taken before but I like it (as I like interpretations that assume logic and humanity for the Feanorians rather than blind lust for the Silmarils). The end was heart-rending. Really nicely done!
(On a mod note, I'm not sure if you intended this to be a round-robin story? That means that any other SWG member can add chapters. If you didn't intend it and need help getting it set back as a regular story, just drop me a note in your reply and I'll fix it.)
*mod hat off*
Once again, I really enjoyed this and am glad you posted it here! :)
Oh thank you so much for the review!
I really felt I needed to write this after I wrote the story about what comes after--with the brothers finding he has gone and learning of his capture. Maglor often comes off poorly in versions of that time and I couldn't imagine Nelyo didn't have reasoning and justification for his actions--he is far too astute a politician for that and he knew what he was leaving for Maglor--he just didn't realize Maglor wouldn't tell them he promised Nelyo not to go after him!
I see the Fëanorians as far more than just singleminded obsession with obtaining the jewels. They are deep, insightful, intellectual and flawed individuals but they are far more than just their Oath.
I did not mean it to be round robin! Still learning on this site. If you can fix it that would be great! Thank you!
Never mind! I think I fixed it!
Oh thank you so much for the review!
I really felt I needed to write this after I wrote the story about what comes after--with the brothers finding he has gone and learning of his capture. Maglor often comes off poorly in versions of that time and I couldn't imagine Nelyo didn't have reasoning and justification for his actions--he is far too astute a politician for that and he knew what he was leaving for Maglor--he just didn't realize Maglor wouldn't tell them he promised Nelyo not to go after him!&
I see the Fëanorians as far more than just singleminded obsession with obtaining the jewels. They are deep, insightful, intellectual and flawed individuals but they are far more than just their Oath.
I did not mean it to be round robin! Still learning on this site. If you can fix it that would be great! Thank you!
Never mind! I think I fixed it!
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