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.
elennalore has requested the following types of constructive criticism on this fanwork: Characterization, Conflict, Mood/Tone, Plot, Style, Worldbuilding. All constructive criticism must follow our diplomacy guidelines.
I loved the use of first person here! I also think you carried the victorian language well through the piece; it's not a tone that's frequently used in Tolkien-fic but it works surprisingly well. And then it became witch-queen Tar-Míriel. I really liked at the end how she requested a different form; an interesting response from someone who had had her gender used against her before.
Thank you for reading and commenting! I took the first person POV from the prompt text, but I agree that it works well here, as well as the general tone inspired by the prompt. When I started to write this, I had no idea that she would become the Witch-queen (king), but that plot idea appeared in the process of writing, and I found myself liking it.
I found myself liking Míriel in this story and the voice in which it is told.
I am proud to admit that I made a Maia come that night. -- I love that she's proud of that.
I think it is very understandable that she's worried about getting pregnant, even if she hasn't had her period in a while.
I like how you fitted in her running up the mountain as something Mairon told her to do and how she wants to have the body of a man afterwards, because it's the men that have power. Also that Mairon had intended the Ring for Ar-Pharazon but changed his mind.
I’m happy you liked the story and Míriel’s voice. :)
And nice, you spotted the Meneltarma incident, and the real reason she was there, according to this fic. One of my favorite things about writing fanfic is that you can take a canon incident, and with some subtle change in the plot, make it different in context.
Thank you for your comment! I'm happy that you liked my take on Witch King Tar-Míriel. I came to like the idea a lot during the writing process. Míriel's voice was enjoyable to write, especially spurred by the text prompt.
Oh I love this. The voice of Tar-Miriel is excellent and the sort of factual way she goes through what happened, like making a record of it. A fascinating exploration of Sauron's time in Numenor--and Witch King Tar-Miriel is fantastic.
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.
elennalore has requested the following types of constructive criticism on this fanwork: Characterization, Conflict, Mood/Tone, Plot, Style, Worldbuilding. All constructive criticism must follow our diplomacy guidelines.