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 ...
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.
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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.
Awww! Well done. I really enjoyed this story. I like the background details that you've given to Amárië. I like the interpretation that you give of the text from the Grey Annals which says, "and she was not permitted to go with him into exile." The implication, of course, being that she wanted to go, but someone stopped her.
Thank you, I'm so glad you liked it! I knew right away when I saw the challenge that I wanted to write Amarië, but I wasn't sure where I was going with her until that "not permitted to go" popped out at me when I read your character biography.
I really like how rebellious Amarie is! It shows how brave she is, even though she thinks herself a coward. It's also nice to see her find a new family, who will support her and her decisions. Also, one that's full of people who are brave in less conventional ways, like her...Arafinwe for turning back to deal with the aftermath of the fight at Alqualonde, and Earwen for holding her two people together through everything.
Great story! It's always fun to read things about the more obscure characters like Amarie.
Poor Amarië has spent a lot of time regretting not standing up to her parents and running after Finrod. She may be surprised to learn he spent a lot of time in Beleriand thanking the Valar that she wasn't there, much as he missed her... I think Eärwen needed Amarië as much as Amarië needed her.
This is so lovely. I am sorry it has taken me so long to put into writing what I told you in person at the Mereth Aderthad!
Things I love ...
The clear turning point, when Amarie realizes the convenience of conformity has led her to lose the one she loves, represented by the moment when she leaves her parents' home to go to Findarato's parents. This is such a loaded moment--the leaving of home a symbol of a coming of age delayed by the horror of the Darkening and then her hesitancy to follow Findarato.
The style is simple, the words few, and yet I have tears in my eyes when I read this. Her despair over learning not only of his death but the manner of his death is heartbreaking.
The reembodiment scene ... admittedly, this is a personal quirk because I love stories that imagine this. :) (I wrote a Finrod-reembodiment story myself, but the witness was Finarfin, not Amarie!) Her horror at the sight of him, followed by her joy as she feels the life returning to his body ... again, you are not super-elaborate in telling this story, but the simplicity really works. And of course the very satisfying ending when she realizes what she wants and decides to involve his family this time in helping her to make the necessary decisions.
Thank you! No worries, I'm glad you commented on this story - it reminded me I meant to follow up with more of Finrod and Amarie!
Poor Amarie was convinced by her parents to do what she thought was the right thing, only to second-guess herself once it was too late. Her pious Vanyarin parents never understood, and their reaction to Finrod's death was really her breaking point.
I tried to keep Lorien/the reembodiment simple but not too simple - Amarie was so overloaded for most of it that she really wasn't able to take in much detail. The only thing she really notices besides Finrod is 'wait, why does Irmo not seem more sure about what he's doing?'
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.