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…
My newly drawn map of Aman, as complete as I could make it.
Current Challenge
Bollywood
Prompts this month are films, songs, and tropes from India's dazzling film industry, Bollywood. Read more ...
Random Challenge
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 ...
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.
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.
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.
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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.
This was a very moving story from the poem in the beginning to the fate of the last Fëanorian in the end. I usually prefer stories with a happier ending, but this is just beautiful. And you manage to instill a sense of every character, their feelings, wishes and regrets in such a short space. Thank you for sharing these.
Oh, this chapter is chilling. I love the formatting of it: the jewels are always there no matter what, their voices triggering Feanor to commit terrible crimes.
The way this is laid out raises the interesting question of responsibility, and of how the light of Varda is such a corrupting force. Is the light of the Trees too strong a thing for an elf to handle? That's a question that could spark plotbunnies for *me*! :D
Through each piece I can see that madness and obsession inspired the the jewels, leading to the House of Feanor's downfall.
Some of the sons of Feanor were tricked by the seductive voices of the Silmarils, which play right into their pride and belief that they can restore the House's glory if only they strike the right blow... How far from humanity they have fallen, to believe that the Silmarils are worth more than the lives of their kin and the people who were loyal to them.
And then there were the sons who realized their mistakes, and (at the same time, horribly) realize that they cannot atone for them. I can't figure out which mindset is more tragic.
Nerdanel's piece was a lovely inclusion. She has always been one of my favorites, and this captures her tragedy and helplessness very well.
Thanks so much for your review. This was my chance to show the Feanorians as not evil but completely misguided and lost themselves. In my mind, the Silmarils were like cocaine and they were addicts. And like drug addicts, they don't care about what damage they do to themselves or others, they just want to get their next fix or the ultimate high. It doesn't really make them evil - it makes them flawed which despite some people's opinions, Elves are flawed.
This was a very moving story from the poem in the beginning to the fate of the last Fëanorian in the end. I usually prefer stories with a happier ending, but this is just beautiful. And you manage to instill a sense of every character, their feelings, wishes and regrets in such a short space. Thank you for sharing these.
Thanks so much for your comments. This story was so special to me because I wanted to show the Feanorians as something more than 'monsters' and kinslayers.
Oh, this chapter is chilling. I love the formatting of it: the jewels are always there no matter what, their voices triggering Feanor to commit terrible crimes.
The way this is laid out raises the interesting question of responsibility, and of how the light of Varda is such a corrupting force. Is the light of the Trees too strong a thing for an elf to handle? That's a question that could spark plotbunnies for *me*! :D
Through each piece I can see that madness and obsession inspired the the jewels, leading to the House of Feanor's downfall.
Some of the sons of Feanor were tricked by the seductive voices of the Silmarils, which play right into their pride and belief that they can restore the House's glory if only they strike the right blow... How far from humanity they have fallen, to believe that the Silmarils are worth more than the lives of their kin and the people who were loyal to them.
And then there were the sons who realized their mistakes, and (at the same time, horribly) realize that they cannot atone for them. I can't figure out which mindset is more tragic.
Nerdanel's piece was a lovely inclusion. She has always been one of my favorites, and this captures her tragedy and helplessness very well.
Thanks so much for your review. This was my chance to show the Feanorians as not evil but completely misguided and lost themselves. In my mind, the Silmarils were like cocaine and they were addicts. And like drug addicts, they don't care about what damage they do to themselves or others, they just want to get their next fix or the ultimate high. It doesn't really make them evil - it makes them flawed which despite some people's opinions, Elves are flawed.
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.