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…
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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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.
Hilarious! I love the spread of fates in this, the various sons all off leading different lives; the rivalry and family tensions carried over into the future; and Feanor a great engineer, always after the Silmaril, but then -- what? Well, he'll do something with it, probably... Thank you!
Thanx for the review, Clodia. I had a lot of fun with this; Feanor's voice sounded very clear to me for once. I do wonder though, if Feanor does eventually seize the Silmaril, will he find that having is as sweet as wanting, particularly after what the Jewel has cost him?
This garnered a major thumb's up from me when I saw it in its earlier draft, and my enjoyment is sustained in this final version. Raksha, I expect you and I are "of an age" and vividly remember the Apollo missions. This captures the excitement of the times and then "Tolkienizes" it. It's a good example of the so-called "alternate universe" genre, which to succeed requires a good knowledge of the texts (The Silmarillion, HoMe, etc.) I'd be inclined to call this an "alternate history" because it surely still has the feel of Tolkien's universe.
Fëanor's character comes through so well here. it's very satisfying to think of his role in the Apollo missions and for the purpose of...retrieving his Silmaril! The nod to careers of Curufin and Maglor are great. The fifth Beatle! Yëah, yëah, yëah!
And driving away in that custon El Dorado? I don't know how much more in character one could get with "Dr. Feurstein." :^D
I can still remember where I was when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon; how exciting it all was. And think how much more exciting it was for someone who actually worked on the space flight...While Feanor did join the space program engineers to further his grand design of getting back the Jewel, I think he would have found the work very satisfying.
I see Curufin as very much a junior Feanor in terms of ability and work ethic, perhaps with less imagination than his father; very much a good son. Maglor's a slave to music; and eventually got tired of lamenting on the seashore; though I expect he still has melancholy spells.
Thanx again for your help with the beta and scientific proofing, Pandemonium; I'm still thrilled that the story passed muster with you, since I definitely do not have a scientific mind.
I love this story, which says something as I don't like Feanor and rarely read Simarillion stories! It just feels so plausible that he would keep on inventing if he lived. I also loved the idea of his son as a Beatle!
Feanor is not one of my favorite elves; but he was certainly a prime mover of events. I didn't really take an interest in him until I saw Maeglin's birthday challenge - Feanor Lives - and had a vision of Feanor with sunglasses and a flashy red car watching the Apollo 11 take-off...I think for Feanor, inventing or perfecting, the craft of making things, was as important to him as breathing; he was a far better artisan than he was a king.
Thanx, Steel; the Spirit of Fire was a lot more fun to write in the 20th century than (for me) in the Age of the Trees; I found him more accessible. Glad you liked the piece.
What a lovely story! Feanor will always be himself, no? his long term agenda has hardly changed over the millenia. The idea of gifting the recovered Silmaril to Yavanna is quite great as his choice of car. You convery very vividly the pleasure of the craftsman at the accomplished task and, of course, he does not need to take the credit for himself. Also very much in character his memories of Nerdanel and having Curufin working with the Russian space project.
Maglor as the fifth Beatle, of course. I always imagined that there had to be something more with the Beatles. Now I realize what it was
Thanks for reading and reviewing, Angelica. I have never written Feanor before; he is certainly a complex character; and the idea of his surviving (AU that it is) and thriving in this very high-tech modern time was appealing. He just might return the Silmaril to Yavanna; a lot would depend on the circumstances of his acquiring it, I suspect.
Maglor just had to be the fifth Beatle; he wanted some fun after all those years of suffering and lamenting.
This is a great story. I never read it before. It must be one of the things I missed during the various periods I was short a functioning computer. I like the concept very much. Feanor fits perfectly.
Thanx for reviewing, Oshun - I'm glad that you enjoyed the story. I had a blast writing the piece. Feanor's quite a piece of work and for once, his state of mind was visible and accessible to me.
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.