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
Holiday Party
No matter if you're in the Northern or Southern hemisphere, it's a time of year to think about holidays. Whether you're bundling up in blankets or slipping a swimsuit into your suitcase, we invite you to an SWG holiday party! 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.
Re-reading this in order to give it comments worthy of the accomplisment! Also. for me at least, it is very different to read a story for pleasure than to nitpick a work-in-progress.
First my apologies, I am still scatter-brained. One chapter at a time!
This is a bold concept. I love the way you introduce it. One of the reasons you are such a good writer is you understand the concept of suspense and laying the ground work.
Thank you for giving this another read through! You did almost as much work on this one as I did so it's a great compliment that you want to read it again.
I appreciate that you like the set up, thanks! suspense and foreshadowing are fun to write if one can pull it off.
One of the best parts about this story is meeting the usual cast of Gondolin characters through Legolas' Third Age eyes--very well done. You are rocking the descriptions of places and people throughout this story! Great work!
You're so sweet. It was a challenge to write the descriptions of Gondolin and its environs because I can visualize it so clearly but struggle to put it all into words. The cast of Gondolin is huge but I had to include the usual suspects. It was fun writing Galdor too and giving him a little personality. I might revisit him someday.
Ha! Legolas and the tree!! Galdor has no clue--he does not know sh*t about trees compared to Legolas.
Love Gondolin putting Legolas through his paces. Thank god he is up to it or he might have gotten through off the city wall!
He is finding his way into the fabric of the city. Doing the hard stuff that will enable him to become close of Glorfindel again. Great plotting and pacing.
Legolas and the book! You are incapable to writing a story, however sad or romantic without including humor. That is what makes your work so authentic and human.
There is something just so deeply hilarious about Legolas having to sit out an archery contest!
I know how hard it is to write a tournament scene because I took that on myself (at great length) in a story once. Very nice work spelling it out but not making it ridiculously too long and overly detailed like G.R.R. Martin does!
You don't know how much I wanted to have him do the shooting, but he is still the best because he helped Erestor win over one of the best archers in that Age. So I still kept his honor.
I dont think I could have even written the tournament without your story for inspiration. It was so clearly described, with such colorful and natural actions. I do like writing stuff like that but I really only know what I've seen in movies, which is what most everyone knows about it anyway, so I think I get by.
Legolas is finally finding his place in Gondolin and getting to know Glorfindel as well. You build up to this point so well. What I said earlier about pacing....
“Oh, you really must one day. The cry of the gulls, the breaking of the waves upon the shore. It is a very spiritual place. Ulmo is very present there.”
“I find the forest to be that for me. The tall, sturdy trees, the ferns and mossy streams. It is so much a part of me I don’t think I could ever truly be happy anywhere else.”
“If you love the forests and I the sea, where then shall we live?” Glorfindel said with a grin.
“Why here, of course,” Legolas said readily. And he meant it. He would have lived here with Glorfindel forever if not for the burden of destiny.
Very nicely done. You include a truck load to references in this simple bit of dialog. And end it with a kick in chest! Poor Legolas!
Thank you, I love referencing things from the books in subtle or not so subtle ways. It's always a pleasure when someone picks up on it. You're awesome!
Love the introduction and resolution of conflict in the meeting with Ecthelion--nice choices.
I was thinking as we worked on this how you were an excellent writer and wordsmith went I met you ages ago! But you have continued to hone the finer details of the craft of building a story.
This ending is absolutely lovely--so filled with wistfulness and longing. Congrats on this truly epic response to a fic swap. I enjoyed reading every part of it. It is masterfully done--so many things going throughout the story and so much detail in the description of canon events. I particularly loved getting to know Galdor, who I have to admit I had not given a thought to before I read your story. As you know, the story and working with you on it--so much fun--was what inspired me to write a character bio on him.
Thank you so much for all your help and suggestions with this one. I feel like you did as much work on this as I did. I’m happy you like what I did with Galdor and that it inspired you to write the masterful bio of him that is on this very site! He’s an overlooked character that deserves more love.
This is one I literally don’t think I could have done without you so your review means a lot to me. I appreciate you always being there to help me through the swaps.
It was a pleasure. In fact, it was a laugh riot--racing toward the finish-line simultaneously while Beta-reading one another's stories. I know we've done that a lot over the years, but it had been a while.
You really did take on a challenging concept--time-travel stories are hard, especially while tying oneself to so many restrictions and requiring one end up at an unchanged set point in canon after a whole bunch of potentially plot-changing elements. It gives me a headache just thinking about the amount of work. I'm a seat-of-the-pants writer. You succeeded big time! Again. it was a pleasure to be involved.
Good times! It felt great to do it again this year.
I really had to streamline the time travel element in this, changing only one element, which would have had larger repercussions all around to be honest. It would have ended up like Inception if I’d gone too crazy with it and then I’d have confused myself.
You know I never plot anything so this just played out as I went along but I’m happy with the result. More importantly my recipient really likes it and I always strive for that above everything.
Your swap story was actually more complex than this, with larger implications for the canon events, so I must also give you props for that. I love watching your stories come together in real time.
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.