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.
Headcanons accepted.
OK, I was waiting to comment until I'd read all of this, but now I can't wait any longer. So glad Herucalmo finally figured it out! Took him long enough! (Entirely believable, since he cannot possibly have expected to meet Maglor of all people on his impulsive trip to the beach, but I still couldn't wait for the realisation.) This is such a fascinating discussion, and I can't wait to find out where it's headed.
Also, I am glad that you couldn't hear the indignified squealing sound I made when I saw that TEA had inspired you to write something about Herucalmo! Wow. I'm so ridiculously excited.
And now, onward!
Thanks, Lyra :)
I've been thoroughly enjoying Embalmer's Apprentice (as I think you must know by now), and I think my favourite aspect is the way the deterioration of the Numenoreans is deftly sketched between generations - the mid-times are the hardest to properly show, especially the gentle gradations from one generation to the next).
Herucalmo is almost as bright as he regards himself to be, but very self-focused (naturally so, given his upbringing). For many people, their internal focus in a conversation isn't that much on their interlocutor - for Herucalmo here, it's:
1 - Put this Elf at ease so I can look for that Light. Focus on what I'll be saying next.
2 - [Slightly offended] - explain what I meant; he'll understand. Focus on what I'll be saying next rather than what he's saying.
3 - Hang on - he's a very influential and ancient Elf. Maybe I can benefit from this. Focus on what I'll be saying next to try to bring out the information I want.
4 - Wait, who is he? Focus on what he's saying and what he has said. Wait - he's Maglor?
“We are Doomed and you are not.” Oh, Herucalmo! I love how you show how very firmly he is caught up in the whole death=doom line of thought that will ultimately lead to the Downfall of Númenor. And I love how Maglor dismantles his understanding of the line of succession - although Herucalmo still doesn't quite grasp it...
Herucalmo is still, unfortunately, too self-focused. But at least he's self-focusing in the right direction - he's remembering more than he thought he would (memories tend to cascade thanks to associations; that is, as I understand it, how memories are "sorted" and "stored")
At the moment, he's trying to listen and understand, but automatically placing the information where he originally understood it to be - he's still certain of his own rightness. But he does listen, eventually.
(As long as what he's understanding fits with what he wants, of course. He would never accept any argument on Doom, sadly - he's too far gone for that)
Maglor's assessment of Turgon is harsh, but I'd be lying if I hadn't thought the same! And the way he formulates the rule for succession is pure genius. It really sums up the years between the death of Fingolfin and the Second Age perfectly. Thoroughly enjoying this discussion - the way in which Maglor stops pretending to be just a random elf on the shore is very telling, too. And of course that's exactly the conclusion Herucalmo would draw!
I figured that as Turgon so disliked the Sons of Feanor (not without reason, of course), his dislike would be returned. It's arguably an unfair representation (after all, Turgon was operating on Ulmo's guidance), but there's enough truth to it that it stings. And it does provide a nice counterpoint to Pengolodh's rather biased narrative.
And thank you for your kind words :)
I was wondering if the light had been the actual Silmaril! So pleased to have been right. Oh, Maglor. And yes, packing up and moving on is certainly indicated right now - even if Herucalmo doesn't return after all.
Of course, "Light of the West" works either way - whether it was the sunset or the Silmaril he glimpsed... and I love the wider implications of this. Although Maglor is certainly right that Herucalmo would take a lot more (and better) schooling to live up to that name and his prospects.
Why would immortal Elves have evolved detailed and specific rules along those lines when, prior to their Exile, they never expected their Kings to die?
Why indeed? The discussions still exist (naturally, as new people come into the fandom and revive old discussions), and "they never had a plan for the succession, they just made things up as they went along" feels like the most satisfying conclusion.
I'm sure Herucalmo would have found some way of justifying his usurpation (or is it?) in some way anyway, but this is surely the best-thought-out rationalisation. Doesn't seem to have caught on, though!
I absolutely adore this story (as you can probably tell). Thanks so much for sharing.
And thank you for your kind comments.
It probably comes out that Maglor is a bit condescending (naturally so, I think). While writing it, this brought out a further realisation on your Embalmer's Apprentice - I knew already you were showing the evolution of the deterioration of the Numenoreans between Atanacalmo's generation and Herucalmo's generation, but I further realised that Eärendur's attitude - although far nicer and more thoughtful (and a light shown on how much better things were in the earlier era of Numenor), you can see a chink of the same issues: Eärendur takes his responsibilities seriously and properly as a paternalistic Lord, but has occasional tendencies towards condescension towards his "lessers."
I think he fights it when he subconsciously picks it up, but deep down, there's a latent "better than you" self-image. The fact that he almost always keeps it reined in means he's a great Lord, but you could see how it - if not held back - could grow and become what it has in Atanacalmo, and then later Herucalmo.
My apologies for a discursion into discussing your work, but it was in writing this that what you were doing there suddenly became clear.
No need to apologise! I should be sorry that my work is intruding into what should be a discussion of your story! You are absolutely right, of course. There is condescension in Eärendur, too, and while he mainly channels it into teaching, protecting and looking after his people, it still comes from a sense of superiority and of knowing best what's best for others. Atanacalmo's motivations are much the same - he's just using different methods, and doesn't worry too much about what it looks like from the outside. Herucalmo probably thinks that he's acting in the best interests of his country. And each generation moves a little further away from "what's best for everybody" and closer to "what's best for me"...
It would be hard for Maglor not to feel at least a little superior. He does know better about many things (not just history, but certainly Elven and probably a fair bit of human nature, too) from bitter experience. And it has probably been a long time since he's been able to hone his skills in polite face-to-face communication.
I loved your list of Herucalmo's internal focus. Spot-on. The way he stored the new information in exactly the way he would benefit from it was also very human - don't we all prefer to use new information to support what we thought we knew all along, as long as possible, rather than turning our world on its head?
Maglor's take on Turgon, now that I think about it, probably doesn't differ too much to Maedhros thoughts about Thingol's land-lending policies - or the Dúnedain' attitude towards the people of Bree and the Shire disregarding the Rangers while profiting from their work.
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