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.
Largely focused on Númenor, its fall, and the aftermath, as seen from the perspective of two Mannish scientists, bit players in some ways, but who nonetheless cast their shadows across the history of Middle Earth.
A story of three friends in Númenor, one of whom attracts the attention of the High Priest. What does friendship mean in the shadow of the Black Temple?
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…
Bollywood
Prompts this month are films, songs, and tropes from India's dazzling film industry, Bollywood. Read more ...
Random Challenge
B2MeM 2011
Back to Middle-earth Month 2011 featured a daily postcard from a different location in Middle-earth with a creative prompt inspired by that location. 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.
This is so imaginative. I am humbled. Loved the set-up, the professor and the students.
century-old photos of the excavations of the “lost” island of Númenor, with the obligatory men in pith helmets and women in quaint divided skirts and giant hats with mosquito veils posed on the stubs of the cyclopean masonry. The famous Golden Cache popped into view next: “I have gazed on the face of Tar-Meneldur and found it beautiful,” her lips murmured the old quote of their own accord.
It reminded me of Schliemann's famous quote: "I have gazed on the face of Agamemnon." Wonder if that inspired you or something else.
Loved the last paragraph also. If you add to this I will certainly want to read it. If you don't, it is a perfect vignette as-is.
Oh completely! The Schliemann reference is totally on purpose, and there's another easter egg too. It is all a thinly-veiled sendup of all my college seminars (especially in Classics and Music). The plot bunny is still grazing on my front lawn with a vengeance for when I get time to write more. Thank you for your comment, and I'm glad you liked it!
I enjoyed this class. Lots of fun details! I'm intrigued by the mystery of the piece from The Emerwen Aranel Notebook and looking forward to seeing Dorthaniel's solution!
Thank you! I have a solution in my head, but a separate/additional one is evolving. Characters have a way of taking over the steering wheel, dontcha know?
Came for the premise, stayed for Ancalimë, can't wait to see how this develops. I loved your description of the university setting and the Trojan references, and your description of Ancalimë's strangely isolated childhood was heart-wrenching. What a great story!
Thank you! I have an overarching notion of where this goes, but I still have to write in the details as they come to me. I hope you will enjoy the ride!
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.