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.
LMAO! Enjoyed reading this a lot! It makes perfect sense too--the sewers are a dead giveaway to their presence. And it's just like Tyelpo to invent something like what the engineer brought. A very funny first chapter and I'm excited to see the other lays! ;-)
Wow, this is absolutely brilliant! Not only do you get the iambic tetrameter spot on (just like the original!), but the combination of humor and adventure (and those oft-forgotten-in-fanfic realities of life) is just perfect. I do hope that you write more of these; this was just wonderful. :)
I'm glad you enjoyed it. Inspiration for this came from reading about sewage treatment for work while my mind kept trying to wander off into the lay of Leithian. The two sort of got tangled together. Thank you for the feedback; there will be more in this series although they're rather variable.
How original! Of course, mighty Elves had clogged pipes too but they had to be opened with Elvish grace and courage. Very funny, too. And congratulations on the versification. I am also looking forward to more chapters
Lovely and perfectly hilarious! How painful to die by the thing that you love most. ;-) By the time I reached "for your life is far more fair..." I was choking on my tea.
I'm glad you enjoyed it. For the record, I have no reason to think Glorfindel was particularly vain, but the plot bunny would not go away. Thank you for the feedback.
I find JRR Tolkein had a tendency to avoid talking about such things. I've always wondered where most of the elvish kingdoms grew their food - nargothrond is an exception, since he actually describes fields of all sorts of crops growing above ground. As for dealing with sewage, that is several ranks down from farming in photogenicity. Thank you for the feedback.
You've done it again! As a long-haired person myself, I feel for Glorfindel here. It's not so easy to cut one's long, golden locks! ;) And, you know, I can imagine this being sung aloud too!
For the record, I don't think Glorfindel was vain. As far as I can tell, wearing long hair was standard for male elves in Middle-earth and Gondolin was attacked in the middle of a festival. But sometimes a plot idea will not leave me alone, and this one was short and easy to write down. How could I avoid writing it? Thank you very much for your feedback.
This is a hoot and a half to the nth power. Perfectly timed, er, metered and phrased. My hat's off to you. And of course the Elves (especially those Noldorin engineers) would create a paean to a sewage system!
I'm glad you enjoyed it. This is what happens when you have to read about sewage disposal systems for work but you'd much rather be thinking about Middle-earth.
I'm glad you liked it; it was fun to write. The footnote is because I think some of the Gondolin exiles might've taken offense at a poem like this, especially as it was written by someone who wasn't there.
The fungus covered log exists because I had to find something that would rhyme with bested by a dog, and I thought there must be a lot of fungused logs in Taur-nu-fuin. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
I'm glad you enjoyed it. I haven't done much alliterative poetry so it was an experiment. I had noticed J.R. R tolkien used alliterative forms in some of his Lays of Beleriand so I thought I'd try it.
I haven't had a chance to catch up with these in a while, and I'm glad that I finally have! Sauron as a fungus-covered log is priceless! Your more serious pieces are also nicely done. (As for what you'd like to do with them, it is of no preference to me either way; I enjoy your poetry and so will read it however you decide to store it! :)
The fungus-covered log exists because it rhymed with bested by a dog, and I was trying to figure out what sort of thing present in Taur-nu-Fuin could possibly rhyme. I think I'll probably keep the serious pieces in here for now if there are any more of them. I'm glad you enjoyed them.
I'm glad you enjoyed it. I'm not quite sure where I got the image - it may just have been that raven rhymed with craven, and the whole idea of Morgoth as a misbegotten raven was too bizarre not to use.
How could I resist a fic where the latest part is titled "The Laundry Orc's Lament"?! These are great. Admittedly, I find myself partial to the humourous ones, as they feature some rather unusual aspects of life in M-e, but the serious ones are great too.
The lord of the sewers and Glorfindl's hair had me snickering already, and by the time I reached "the harp"I was emitting strange sounds indeed. I never quite considered the woes of a laundry orc, but that must be a tragic life indeed. The serious pieces were very nice as well, especially the one about Nargothrond (not its sewers).
I'm glad you like this - I only just spotted this review, sorry for the many-years wait. Yes, the laundry orc's life is not a happy one, happy one. (if you don't recognise this reference, check out Gil-bert and Sullivan's song A policeman's lot is not a happy one to find out what I'm talking about)
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.