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.
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.
Created for the 'Geography/Maps/Places' prompt on the "Tolkien meta" bingo board, this is a collection of maps marked with the various people groups showing how they arrived and moved about Beleriand. This collection focuses specifically on the time from the arrival of the Teleri, Vanyar, and…
This is an analysis on whether the Sindar ate the Petty-dwarves during the years they hunted them, completed for the 'Literary Analysis' prompt on the "Tolkien Meta" bingo card.
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
Start to Finish
Choose one of the famous first lines from the list below and use it to start your story. If you are creating a fanwork other than writing, you may use one of the first lines to inspire your fanwork. 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.
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.
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.
November challenge at tolkienshortfanworks
The challenge for November has been posted to the tolkienshortfanworks community on Dreamwidth. Thematic prompt: refuge. Formal challenge: include imitation of a sound. As always, these can be filled independently and also freely combined with SWG and other challenges. New participants welcome!
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.
What a gripping story you have written, Robinka! You successfully inhabited the mind of Carcharoth. In doing so, you created a fearsome creature yet a vulnerable one, too. Carcharoth's pain and subsequent frenzy are readily apparent. You describe the fight between Carcharoth and Huan vividly - you write action so well. And as horrific as Carcharoth might be and with all the devastation that the animal caused at his master's behest, I have to say I kind of feel badly for the creature in that he would have had a happier and less eventful life out hunting aurochs* in the eastern steppes of Middle-earth than as Morgoth's lupine slave. That your story elicted this flicker of sympathy speaks to your ability to "see" the tale from the wolf's perspective. Well done!
*I love, love, love the detail of the auroch! Tolkien had an interest in paleontology, and his "kine of Araw" surely sound like they were aurochs. It makes eminent sense to me that some fauna from the Pleistocene would still exist in the First Age.
I have to say that this story gave me a headache, because I wrote in Polish first and I struggled then with the translation. It wouldn't have been as tough if I'd written just in English, but the challenge meant the challenge ;)
Oh, and the aurochs -- I wondered what animal might be a challenge for Carcharoth and I thought that it should be one mightier that an European buffalo. I'm so glad that my idea worked. :D
Tak sobie pomyślałam, że będzie miło jeśli ktoś zostawi recenzję w języku polskim, więc postanowiłam, że tym "kimś" będę ja. :)
Bardzo dobrze napisana historia! Ciężko jest napisać coś z punktu widzenia zwierzaka (choćby nie wiem jak bardzo była to interesująca postać) na tyle znaków i na takim poziomie. Przyczyna jest prosta - ludzie nie "czują" tak jak zwierzęta. Hmm, no może czasami.... ;) Ale nie odbiegając od tematu, chcę powiedzieć, że genialnie oddałaś charakter tego polowania. Posłużyłaś się instynktami wilka i na potrzeby tej historii wyciągnęłaś z niego to, co najlepsze. To, że go ścigają, nie oznacza, że jest ofiarą. ;) Wstawienie rozmów "istot dwunożnych" sprawiło, że całość jest jeszcze bardziej interesująca i "żyje". :) A teraz przejdźmy do wersji angielskiej... pod wersją angielską. :)))
Dzięki serdeczne za przeczytanie i za komentarz. :) No, było z tym opowiadaniem trochę problemów, poza tym chyba jednak wolę pisać po angielsku. Jakoś lepiej brzmi ;) Chociaż po polsku też nieźle, ale to nie jest to jednak. Chyba się odzwyczaiłam ;) za te wszystkie lata. Ale przejdźmy do wersji angielskiej...
As I said under the Polish version - the story is brilliant! Firstly, a few words about translation - it's really good. I'm giving you my bow to this part of your work. I know how difficult it was, because it required a change of thinking. Great job! Both versions are wonderful, but I think that the English version is the one that I like more. Maybe it's because of the fact that for me all Tolkien stories sounds better in English than in Polish, though it is my native language. ;) Yeah, I know it's weird.
Secondly, something about the wolf - I know he was a bad, bad animal ;), but as long as I was reading your story there were some moments that I felt sorry for him. This never-ending pain that was growing inside him was cruel. After all, he was an animal, a wolf. And I like wolves very much. ;)
Again, thanks a million for reading and reviewing :) I appreciate your kind words very much. I too, at some point, felt sorry for Carcharoth, and I wanted to show that he was meant to be cruel and an ultimate baddie, he was still an animal, with no say upon the ways in which he'd been bred and trained. I'm glad that my idea somehow worked.
I know I reviewed this elsewhere, but still the re-read is fabulous! I don't think its easy to crawl under the skin of such a beast and yet, as you write, make me as a reader still feel sympathy for him. The fight with Huan is just... wow and just to think that you wrote it in Polish first, then in English: deepest respect here. Well done, what a ride (again!).
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.