Pages from the Archives of Cîr Imladris by

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Fanwork Notes

Written for various of the Silmarillion Writer's challenges, described in the individual chapter notes. Each chapter can be read as a stand alone, thus the marked complete tag.

Posted here on AO3.

Many thanks to Morgynleri and Runa for encouragement and sanity checking.

Fanwork Information

Summary:

Elrond took his library with him to Valinor. In that archive are many things, and the librarians and archivists of Cîr Imladris (New Rivendell) are kept delightfully busy.

Major Characters: Caranthir, Fingon, Idril

Major Relationships:

Genre: Experimental, Fixed-Length Ficlet, General, Poetry

Challenges: Crackuary, Experimental, Laws and Customs, Middle-earth Is Multitudes, Naturalist's Guide to Middle-earth, New Year's Resolution, On a Different Page, Postcards from Middle-earth, Rejects, True Leader, Utopia/Dystopia

Rating: General

Warnings:

This fanwork belongs to the series

Chapters: 15 Word Count: 5, 393
Posted on 27 June 2020 Updated on 14 November 2023

This fanwork is a work in progress.

Table of Contents

Written for the Silmarillion Writer's Guild Law and Custom challenge, to the prompt: "'It is decreed by the king; but that does not make it so,' answered Elendil." ~ The Lost Road

Double-drabble text, single drabble note, not counting the headers.

Written for the Silmarillion Writer's Guild January 2021 Resolutions challenge:
The bonus prompt for January 2 for the New Year's Resolution challenge comes from our Laws & Customs challenge from this past June:

"‘Who’s that? Be off! You can’t come in. Can’t you read the notice: No admittance between sundown and sunrise?
‘Of course we can’t read the notice in the dark,’ Sam shouted back. ‘And if hobbits in the Shire are to be kept out in the wet on a night like this, I’ll tear down your notice when I find it.’"
~ The Return of the King, “The Scouring of the Shire”

Double-drabble text, double-drabble commentary, not counting the headers.

Written for the Silmarillion Writer's Guild January 2021 Resolutions challenge:
The bonus prompt for January 3 comes from our True Leaders challenge from July 2020:

"I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear."
~ Rosa Parks

Double-drabble text, with a single-drabble note, not counting the headers.

Written for the Silmarillion Writer's Guild January 2021 Resolutions challenge:
Our bonus prompt today comes from June's "Laws & Customs" challenge:
"Then they cast Eöl over the Caragdûr, and so he ended, and to all in Gondolin it seemed just; but Idril was troubled, and from that day she mistrusted her kinsman."
~ The Silmarillion, "Of Maeglin"

Double drabble text, single drabble commentary, not counting the headers.

Written for the Silmarillion Writer's Guild January 2021 Resolutions challenge:

The bonus prompt for January 11 comes from "Utopia/Dystopia" this past August. While we generally offered two opposing prompts, this one neatly manages to roll utopia and dystopia all into one:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”
~ Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

Single drabble text, single drabble note, not counting the headers

Written for the Silmarillion Writer's Guild January 2021 Resolutions challenge:
-- Day 6: Today's bonus prompt is an addendum to our Crackuary bingo card from February: a bonus 3x3 mini-card! - C3: Feanor did nothing wrong,
--Day 13: The 13th's prompt comes from June's "Laws & Customs" challenge:
“Then there was great unrest in Tirion, and Finwë was troubled; and he summoned all his lords to council. But Fingolfin hastened to his halls and stood before him, saying: ‘King and father, wilt thou not restrain the pride of our brother, Curufinwë, who is called the Spirit of Fire, all too truly? By what right does he speak for all our people, as if he were King?’”
~ The Silmarillion, “Of the Silmarils and the Unrest of the Noldor”

Single drabble text, single drabble note, not counting the headers.

Written for the Silmarillion Writer's Guild January 2021 Resolutions challenge:
-- Day 10: Bonus prompts are images for instadrabbling from the Naturalist's Guide to Middle-earth challenge, Sept 2020. Image 9, Man-o-War Jellyfish and Image 14, Pitcher Plants
--Day 23: Today's bonus prompt comes from "Laws and Customs":
“Then the servants of Angband were driven out of all the land between Narog and Sirion eastward, and westward to the Nenning and the desolate Falas; and though Gwindor spoke ever against Túrin in the council of the King, holding it an ill policy, he fell into dishonour and none heeded him, for his strength was small and he was no longer forward in arms.”
~ The Silmarillion, “Of Túrin Turambar”

Double drabble text, double drabble commentary, not counting the headers

Written for the Silmarillion Writer's Guild January 2021 Resolutions challenge:
In honor of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday tomorrow (Jan 15), we offer a pair of quotes as a bonus for August's "Utopia/Dystopia" challenge:
“In the final analysis, love is not this sentimental something that we talk about. It’s not merely an emotional something. Love is creative, understanding goodwill for all men. It is the refusal to defeat any individual. When you rise to the level of love, of its great beauty and power, you seek only to defeat evil systems. Individuals who happen to be caught up in that system, you love, but you seek to defeat the system.”
~Martin Luther King, Sermon Delivered at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, November 17, 1957
“[T]he absence of freedom is the presence of death. Any nation or government that deprives an individual of freedom is in that moment committing an act of moral and spiritual murder. Any individual who is not concerned about his freedom commits an act of moral and spiritual suicide."
~ Martin Luther King, Address at the Fiftieth Annual NAACP Convention, July 17, 1959

Double drabble text, single drabble commentary, not counting the headers

Written for the Silmarillion Writer's Guild January 2021 Resolutions challenge:
-- Day 15: For January 15, in honor of MLK's birthday today, comes a bonus prompt from July's "A True Leader" challenge, featuring quotes from women in leadership roles:
“Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated.” ~Coretta Scott King

Single drabble text, single drabble note, not counting the headers.

Written for the Silmarillion Writer's Guild January 2021 Resolutions challenge:
-- Day 16: January 16 comes from the "Postcards from Middle-earth" challenge:
Image: Eclipse seen from the Moon
-- Day 18: Today's bonus comes from the True Leader challenge: "The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them." ~ Ida B. Wells

Single drabble text, single drabble note

Written for the Fan Flashworks prompt 'Teaching', and posted there here, and on AO3 here.

Also written with the SWG April 2022 challenge 'On a Different Page' in mind, though Tolkien himself never did a bestiary.

Many thanks to Zhie and Runa for encouragement and sanity-checking.

A double-drabble text with single-drabble note, not counting the headers.

Haiku and drabble written for the Fan Flashworks challenge 'Fragile', and posted here, and on AO3 here.

Single drabble text, not counting the haiku or heading, single drabble commentary, not counting the heading.

Written for the Fan Flashworks challenge JE NE REGRETTE RIEN "I Regret Nothing" first posted here.
Also written for the SWG March 2023 Challenge Middle-Earth is Multitudes, the prompts Easterlings and Neurodiverse Characters, posted here on AO3.

Three drabble sequence text, triple drabble commentary/notes, not counting headers.

Thanks go to Zhie & Runa for encouragement & sanity-checking.

I see Caranthir as definitely not neurotypical. In fact, I am pretty sure all of Feanor's family (himself, Nerdanel, his sons, his grandson, and most likely any law-children, Fingon definitely included) are neurodiverse in various ways.

Originally written for the SWG Rejects Challenge, April 2023, Prompt: How about Barahir and Beren are elves (“Sketch of the Mythology”)

Posted on AO3 Here

Not counting headers -- Recto: Drabble poem and single drabble text, Verso: Double drabble text, Archivist's Note: Double drabble, Additional Notes: Single drabble.

The first two stanzas of the poem were originally written for Fan Flashworks and posted here. Commenter deadfinch remarked that sideways, the lines would feel like trees, and I took that idea and ran with it for the SWG Experimental challenge.

Posted on AO3 here.


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.


I love the idea of the library of Cîr Imladris and this is an especially fascinating document and commentary! I appreciate both the uncertainty about the provenance and the archivist's precise observations (until right before the end, that is, when he gets deliberately vague).

[I do hope you don't mind my mentioning it, but you have somehow ended up with one instance of "here" for "hear"]

I love this whole concept so much. The details of the works are so well thought out, and the archival processes (and hiccups) so detailed. The personalities come through so clearly. And there's pathos, and humor, and curiosity. Delightful, every time. 

It's an interesting and cool idea, to write something for a fragmentary idea in the form of fragmentary manuscript pages! I like your explanations for the various confusions. And I'd be fascinated to read the "Beren Strongbow and the Princess of Night" version(s)!

See the eldritch sheen
Seeping
Neath the carven crown

Wow!!  The poem itself but that art and presentation is next level!  And I love the commentary on it, guessing the age based on little clues and questioning translations... <3