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: Potluck Bingo Sit down to a delicious selection of prompts served on bingo boards, created by the SWG community.
Bingo Cards Wanted for Potluck Bingo Our November-December challenge will be Potluck Bingo, featuring cards created by you! If you'd like to create cards or prompts for cards, we are taking submissions.
Tolkien Meta Week, December 8-14 We will be hosting a Tolkien Meta Week in December, here on the archive and on our Tumblr, for nonfiction fanworks about Tolkien.
New Challenge: Orctober Orcs on a quest for freedom seek a place sheltered and safe from the Dark Lord. Fulfill prompts to gather the clues needed to bring them to freedom.
A series of articles featuring fan-made maps of all the lands of Arda. Part III explores the island of Númenor and mainland Middle-earth during the Second Age.
Created for the 'Geography/Maps/Places' prompt on the "Tolkien meta" bingo board, this is a collection of maps marked with the various people groups showing how they arrived and moved about Beleriand. This collection focuses specifically on the time from the arrival of the Teleri, Vanyar, and…
This is an analysis on whether the Sindar ate the Petty-dwarves during the years they hunted them, completed for the 'Literary Analysis' prompt on the "Tolkien Meta" bingo card.
Current Challenge
Potluck Bingo
Help yourself to a collection of prompts on bingo boards designed by members and friends of the SWG. Read more ...
Random Challenge
Inspiration
Your characters inspire you--but what inspires them? Consider what inspires your characters to act and create. Read more ...
A series of articles featuring fan-made maps of all the lands of Arda. Part III explores the island of Númenor and mainland Middle-earth during the Second Age.
A reworking of the 2018 article for Long Live Feedback that includes data from the 2020 Tolkien Fanfiction Survey, pointing to a lack of comments as related to skill, confidence, and community connection.
Part of our Themed Collection series for our newsletter, this collection features fiction, artwork, and essays that transcend the idea of Orcs as the enemy, instead considering their humanity.
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.
Lord of the Rings Secret Santa 2024
LotR SESA has been ongoing for twenty-one years and is running again this year as a prompt meme hosted on AO3 for all genres of Tolkien-based fanfiction.
Kiliel Week 2024
Kiliel Week is a Tumblr event for fanworks about the Kili/Tauriel pairing.
November challenge at tolkienshortfanworks
The challenge for November has been posted to the tolkienshortfanworks community on Dreamwidth. Thematic prompt: refuge. Formal challenge: include imitation of a sound. As always, these can be filled independently and also freely combined with SWG and other challenges. New participants welcome!
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.
Thank you so much! I feel like, if one were an in-universe child in Arda, and the Silmarillion stories are something like a mix between your culture's epics and their holy texts, there are going to be those who's strongest reaction is "but that's not fair!' and want to go back and save everyone.
Oh, this is beautiful! I love the scene, and Gilraen's temper and need to fix the things that unfortunately couldn't be fixed, and how she reasoned with her brother. Wonderfully written, heart-warming and touching story! Thank you :)
Thank you so much, so glad you enjoyed. "Needing to fix things that couldn't be fixed": yes, my reaction to this prompt was a bit "meta"--in some ways this impulse lies behind so much great SWG writing! But I ended up seeing it through the eyes of one who hears these stories, in-universe.
You're welcome! So glad you enjoyed. I think that often we have some of our most pure reactions to stories when we were children: what made us sad, what we saw as unfair; because we haven't become inured to the world and its injustices.
In LOTR, I love the way characters like Aragorn access memories of the First Age through song, through stories & lays; then when you read the Silmarillion, it becomes like a fascinating geology of layers underneath the Third Age.
And I'm glad you liked the dynamic between girl and father; I drew on certain memories of being read to, as a kid.
What an original perspective to discuss subcreation, free will, Aragorn's relation with his kids and what the stories of the Elder Days mean to later people in Middle-earth.
Thank you so much! Aragorn would have an especially poignant, lived relationship to this question, which is woven throughout the early Silm chapters: why Morgoth, and in his turn, why Sauron?
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.