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
Turgon's Rock Opera
On the anniversary of the publication of "The Silmarillion," we’re reflecting on the importance of music in Arda with prompts that come from rock songs. 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.
Oh this is beautifully captured: from frustration and exhaustion to wonder & discovery. At first her weary voice shows what it is like to life with a craftsman like that, yet there is love and such proud feelings at the end. A small story told in this short form: well done!
Rhapsy, thank you for the review. I am glad you liked the story, and that Nerdanel's voice rang out so clearly - you definitely picked up on the main moods I hoped to convey. It must be especially frustrating as 'my' Nerdanel is also a near-perfectionist craftswoman and can imagine part of what it must be like to be Feanor at work and totally immersed in creation - but she also knows her limits and is constantly worried that he overtaxes his own.
As for the story length - sometimes the story determines and writes itself, so really, there is little to credit me for, but thank you anyway. :)
You can actually speak Adûnaic? Now that is impressive. I can’t help you linguistically, although I can tell you that I like the way the words flow together (even though I can’t actually understand them). The poem itself (well, the translation, obviously) is nice: straight-ahead, but with an ending that I like very much. (“One road was crooked, one road was straight, / Now all roads lead to longing.”) It’s sad, but so beautiful.
First of all, thank you for the review - unfortunately, speaking Adûnaic is not quite the case; I started learning the grammar last year and gave up quickly because it was just too complicated, though some things did stick. Ardalambion is a wonderful resource when Tolkien's languages are concerned, and I wouldn't have managed to piece the poem together without that site.
As for the ending - I could go on and on about Tolkien's myth of the Straight Road, the Númenoreans, and the impact of choices (Ar-Pharazôn's choice to serve Sauron and so himself, and Elendil's choice to remain true to the old ways, with both being punished, each in their own way), but that would probably end up far too long for a reply here. The message just seemed fitting to sum up and end the poem, and I'm very glad it worked. Again, thank you. :)
The absence of a daughter must have chaffed Feanaro so. This line was the most thought-provoking: "a quick movement and a tumble to the floor have spared her his attentions many times..."
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.