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.
Is the elf Maglor? This was an interesting story. I never thought that much about the Arkenstone. If it was a Silmaril, one can understand Thorin's great desire for it: one of the legendary Silmarils of Feanor... Thanks for writing!
Ah, the elf is Maedhros ... it is a kind of AU although it isn't hard to see the Arkenstone as a Silmaril and that certainly would fit with the effect it has on people. Thanks for commenting
A lovely piece. The conversation between Maedhros and the Dwarf crams so much characterisation into so few words and Gandalf's bemusement at the end winds it up nicely. Thank you!
Now that is a fun AU. I like the concept very much. Also like the idea that Gandalf worrying that his memory is fading--a reaction to the bodily form he has taken. I assume it would be restored immediately when he decides to cast off his elderly Mortal's body. Of course, my favorite part is Maedhros giving the stone to the Dwarves and walking away from it.
Yes, I'm sure the fading memory is due to the elderly body he is in, and it would be restored. And I find it thoroughly easy to believe that Maedhros (and Maglor) didn't want the Silmarils for themselves by the end of the First Age, even apart from the burned hands issue.
Awesome, awesome story Clotho! And you leave us in such suspense as to what happened after, w/r to the giver of the "Arkenstone."
"By Dwarvish standards unbreakable oaths of blood-thirsty vengeance were perfectly reasonable things, so he would not have felt inclined to criticise even if his guest had not just presented him with the worth of a kingdom."
Indeed. This has always been a point that's confused me greatly w/r to the Feanorians. If they'd been anything other than Elves, the battles of Alqualonde, Doriath and Sirion would have just been battles. But since they were Elves, for some reason they're held to a much higher standard. This is OK, I suppose, but I just don't see why the Teleri of Aman, the Sindar of Doriath, and the mixed folk of Sirion are all held blameless, when the Teleri attacked first and the others refused to give up jewels they had zero right to claim. Not sure if you're sympathetic to this viewpoint, but at least Radsvinn is!
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.