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.
I must confess, I've been writing this piece on the assumption that it would probably only amuse me, so I will be immensely pleased if it entertains you! Celeborn's pompousness was borrowed from the style of the preface to Mrs Jeffrey's journal, which I used as a model for this piece, but I think it's safe to say that he's not particularly pleased about being turned into a Telerin prince -- and I won't tell you why Galadriel couldn't comment, because that would be a bit too much of a spoiler, but maybe it will become clear over the course of the story. If not, I have another short story in mind to go with it that should explain everything.
You're absolutely right, in any case: there's a great deal carefully not being said at this point, and I'm very glad you picked up on it. And I do hope the rest of the story doesn't disappoint! :D
This is hilarious! I'm so excited to see where this goes. I love the idea of presenting Tolkien's alternate histories as fictional accounts created within the world. What a creative way to reconcile the different versions! The style is perfect; it fits so well in 19th century prose. And Celeborn's reaction to being called "Teleporno" is brilliant :-). I can't wait to see the editorial comments on this record. Thank you for making me smile!
And thank YOU for making me smile! I must confess, I've been writing this piece on the assumption that it would probably only amuse me, so I will be immensely pleased if it entertains you! I'm an ancient historian by day, so I'm very much used to dealing with wildly varying accounts of events -- when the issue of Galadriel's various histories came up in conversation with friends, this struck me almost immediately as the best way to write a story about the most extreme UT version of Galadriel, while still maintaining the Silmarillion version as canon. I do hope the rest of the piece doesn't disappoint!
(P.S. Who can blame Celeborn for being a little annoyed? Teleporno is a truly *awful* name. :'D)
Oh, the commentaries live up to what I'd hoped! I love their attitude: "an obvious exaggeration," "wholly unnecessary." Perfect! And I'm very glad they didn't let this unknown author get away with slandering the Silvan elves like that. "Fearful hesitance," indeed! Thank you for pointing out their perfectly valid reasons for making their choices.
You reassure me tremendously! This is barely a beginning, though, I know; I hope you enjoy the rest of it as well. Again, thank you so much for reading and commenting!
Your review makes me so happy! I'm very glad you liked this 'taster' (I promise that the next chapters will be more substantial) -- exaggerations, inaccuracies, hidden agendas: all exactly what I wanted to be read there. Thank you so much for reading and commenting!
After much research, I found out who the anonymous author of this journal actually is.
I know you'd be surprised to learn that such an extensive research resulted in such simple outcome, but here it is:
The author of this journal is Mary Sue.
And to justify this claim, look closely at how the skills learned by Galadriel are described. Those same questionable in notes #3, 4, and the preceding lines. I think you'll come to agree with this hard worked conclusion. (wink).
As before, I love this story.
I must admit to being quite annoyed with the journal part, but I read it carefully for the "editorial comments" later.
Just great. Thank you.
Oh, a small thing:
"King Olwë, my mother’s brother"
In the Silmarillion it is stated:
"Finarfin was the fairest, ..., and had to wife Eärwen, ..., Olwë's daughter."
Ahaha, I can see how you could come to that conclusion! Did you notice Galadriel's Really Shiny Hair (TM)? All in the UT, I assure you. :D Which is one reason why this story exists at all: I was talking to a couple of friends, quite a long time ago now, about how the UT versions bleed all the interesting shadows out of Galadriel and replace them with generic Shinyness and Wonder, which annoyed me, and so Alatariel the Missionary came to be... and yes, she is rather irritating, isn't she? Which is quite deliberate, and amuses me, but I can see how it would be a little aggravating to read. I'm glad the critical notes make up for it!
Also, thank you so much for picking up Olwe -- THAT inaccuracy was totally unintentional and rather embarrassing, and I've scampered round correcting it. I'll have to blame it on a momentary lapse of attention. Many thanks!
This is so much fun! I love the anachronisms - yes, why would the author assume that there would be any songs/stories/poems about war in Valinor at the time? The editors have pretty good explanation :-). I have to laugh at Alatariel's unwavering perfection and superiority, and then at the editors' responses. It's great.
It's great to hear you're enjoying the story and I'm so glad you're laughing! (So much fun to build in anachronisms. Seriously, it is *great* to be writing this sort of material for a change, instead of reading and analysing it. :D) Thanks for reading, as ever, and for such a lovely comment!
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.