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: Potluck Bingo Sit down to a delicious selection of prompts served on bingo boards, created by the SWG community.
Bingo Cards Wanted for Potluck Bingo Our November-December challenge will be Potluck Bingo, featuring cards created by you! If you'd like to create cards or prompts for cards, we are taking submissions.
Tolkien Meta Week, December 8-14 We will be hosting a Tolkien Meta Week in December, here on the archive and on our Tumblr, for nonfiction fanworks about Tolkien.
New Challenge: Orctober Orcs on a quest for freedom seek a place sheltered and safe from the Dark Lord. Fulfill prompts to gather the clues needed to bring them to freedom.
The majority of the Silmarillion was penned by a single Elf--an Elf who was so thoroughly written out as to appear only through the ways in which their perspective shaped the stories we see. This is their story, the historian's history, the Pennas Pengolodh.
The Exiles of Gondolin come to Sirion. The residents of Sirion welcome them, and friendship blossoms between the last remaining loremaster of Gondolin and a young poet of Sirion.
Fingon returns to Barad Eithel after a late-autumn hunt, finding someone unexpected with his wife. The night takes an even more unexpected turn for all three of them.
Current Challenge
Potluck Bingo
Help yourself to a collection of prompts on bingo boards designed by members and friends of the SWG. Read more ...
Random Challenge
B2MeM 2010
Back to Middle-earth Month 2010 was a collaborative game-style challenge where participants created fanworks in order to progress in their attempt to win the Last Battle. Read more ...
A series of articles featuring fan-made maps of all the lands of Arda. Part III explores the island of Númenor and mainland Middle-earth during the Second Age.
A reworking of the 2018 article for Long Live Feedback that includes data from the 2020 Tolkien Fanfiction Survey, pointing to a lack of comments as related to skill, confidence, and community connection.
Part of our Themed Collection series for our newsletter, this collection features fiction, artwork, and essays that transcend the idea of Orcs as the enemy, instead considering their humanity.
Lord of the Rings Secret Santa 2024
LotR SESA has been ongoing for twenty-one years and is running again this year as a prompt meme hosted on AO3 for all genres of Tolkien-based fanfiction.
Kiliel Week 2024
Kiliel Week is a Tumblr event for fanworks about the Kili/Tauriel pairing.
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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.
Thank you I am glad you enjoyed it. I wanted to write something sweet pregnancy related but..well then Miriel took over and even the foreshadowing of Feanor tends to destroy sweetness and fluffyness :) I enjoyed writing it though and am glad you enjoyed reading. Thanks for the fb
What a great ficlet Uli! You created a beautiful portrait here of Miriel and to see this sliver of her motivations is a treat. I just can see her sitting there as the High Queen of the Noldor under Laurelin, consciously aiming to give her unborn son all the qualities he will need to be a good and strong leader, a beacon for those who will follow them. This also shows the ambitious side of Miriel (I really like that) and what she wants for her kid, but also setting things in motion that will become her own undoing. It’s obvious to me where Fëanor got his pride (but then they do claim that sons take after their mother in character...)!
Thank you! And good heavens yes, someone had to have been ambitious and why not Miriel, she was the one that seems to have put toomuch energy into creating her perfect son after all :) I am glad you enjoyed this and thank you for the lovely feedback
I may be reading too much into this, but I liked the sentence structure you used here... long and elaborate, and still rather simple... it makes Míriel's voice very strong and still conveys that "primitive innocence" of the Eldar that Tolkien valued so much. With Míriel's foreknowledge of her son, I wonder if she is aware just how much life will change, especially for herself...
"Their children will be less than mine, I do not carry a night-time child but one of fire[...]." - absolutely wonderful. I think this is the strongest line in the story - it implies so much we know about the Spirit of Fire, and very much reminds me of your poems. I wish I could say more right now, but that would require a very thorough interpretation of the story (and that would include many of my ramblings) - it is so packed with motives - the half-finished gown, the fire symbolism, the colors, Laurelin itself, autumn - without being overdone or clichéd (an easy trap to fall into when writing about the Feanorians!) that I probably will come back and read it again and again (this was, I think, the fourth or fifth time I came back) and still find something new. There is a whole world just beneath the surface of your words, and as an archaeologist in training (and a student of literature!) I can't wait to excavate it!
Truly magnificent and impressive. Thank you for writing this.
I write drabbles and double drabbles much the same way as I write poetry so I am not that suprised if there are resemblances between the two. I just really enjoy writing them and playing with getting the right lanagauge that I want and a sentance structure that 'flows'.
This feedback makes me smile every time i iread it so once again thank you
You described so well the concept of the prophetic "mother names" of elves in the line: "...their children will be less than mine, I do not carry a night-time child but one of fire, of passions such as our people has never seen."
Miriel is a big "what if" for me--how different things would have turned out if she had not decided to "die". Thanks for this piece about her.
Apologies for the extremely late reply to your wonderful feedback.
The whole thing of mother names being prophetic intrigued me and Miriel always have, chosing to pass from the world. Silmarillion would have been very different had she made a different choice
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.