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.
Subscribe to the SWG Newsletter
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.
I was swayed by the mystery of the music and the emotions evoked as if I was a hidden spectator.
Who is this mysterious silvery fluet player? Will Maglor ever see him again? or will he be a passing moment of katharsis? Whichever, it is a precious moment.
thank you, glad you liked it. The mysterious flute player is Tinfang Gelion (Warble), but the name was not yet in the list. Well, Maglor at least has no clue who this mysereious elf is. They will meet again, not in this story but in one set several years later. This ficlet will be a kind of prequel. I plan to write a second chapter nevertheless, with the focus on Tinfang's thoughts and emotions, as I had to keep a certain word limit, so I focussed on Maglor.
I'll echo Scarlet's words. This is enchanting. Your prose is gorgeous and riveting, and I felt myself immersed in the realm of Faerie when reading this. You've taken a rather obscure character from BoLT and brought him to life. Tinfang Warble comes across as elvish but Other, too, and that is just perfect. The build-up of sexual and aesthetic tension is conveyed beautifully through the imagery of music entwined with humanity. Very, very nice, Lintalómë a.k.a. Amaranth!
Thank you so much for your kind words. I think my mind was floating in the realm of Faerie when I wrote this; I had an exact picture of the scene in mind and tried to capture it with words. I found the ficlet a bit difficult to write, I had a word limit of 2000 words and never before had to keep a word limit, so I had to make the descriptions short yet wanted them to convey as much of the emotions and the magic of the moment as possible.
I really fell in love with Tinfang when I read the few details Tolkien mentioned in BoLT and he is spooking my mind ever since. That Tolkien played with the thought of Tinfang being a half-Maia and the few things he mentioned about the magic of Tinfang’s flute play makes him even more special and mysterious…it is so inviting to take those few details, add own ideas and make Tinfang come to life.
The Book of Lost Tales has always had a raw, ethereal magic to it that JRRT's later writings lost, in my opinion. It is rare when I read a story or find a writer who can capture the unique feeling of that book, but you do that here. This story is breathtaking; Maglor's first sight of Tinfang was such that I nearly gasped along with him. The synesthetic imagery, where music unleashes memories and perception, is very effectively done and maintains that magical quality to the end. Very beautifully done--thank you! :)
Thank you, glad you liked it. And thanks for adding Tinfang to the name list, I might need him again in future. I had a rather detailed picture of the scene in mind, Tinfang with his pale hair and skin bathed in moonlight while he dances and plays. And the magic that hung in the air, inspired by the remarks in BoLT where it says that the stars come out too soon when Tinfang plays and that the people who hear him play feel a strange longing, I think this was roughly what BoLT said. And I thought it interesting to let two musicians of such skill express themselves with music instead of words, music that evokes vivid pictures in the mind and conveys their emotions and thought with far more depth as any spoken word could.
I love picking BoLT, opening one of the books at a random page and then having a look what new mysteries I encounter. Whenever I do this, I find something new and interesting that I seemingly overlooked or that did not draw my attention at first. Tinfang was one of the cases where I purposefully researched after I encountered him in the Lay of Leithian, but only after reading what was written about him in BoLT, I became totally hooked.
Faerie indeed! The atmosphere is magical and your description of Tinfang conveys his otherwordliness (even for a Valinor elf). The way tension builds up (both music and sex) is wonderfully described.
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it. Tinfang enchanted me when I read about him in BoLT, he has something special about him and I tried to get this across as best as I could. I think trimming and tightening it because I had to keep a word limit of 2000 words added greatly to the tension, yet it was challenging to say everything I wanted to say in those few words and keep a certain level I thought pleasing.
Sorry for the late reply, I had a hell of a week and was too tired to spend additional time at the computer in the evening. Thank you for your review, I am glad you liked the story. I always try to be descriptive when it comes to the emotions of the characters, trying to give a certain depth.
Sorry for the late reply, I had a hell of a week: second week at the new job, a rather nasty cold and looking for a new car; I collapsed into bed like a stone each evening. Thank you for your review, I am glad you liked the story. It really amazes me how well it was received and it is very encouraging. It was a hard piece of work, it always is, as I often think too German and have problems to word my thoughts in English…I try to think in English to make it easier.
Tinfang is a rather inspiring little muse; he is so enchanting and always sets my mind in motion.
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.