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…
Current Challenge
Bollywood
Prompts this month are films, songs, and tropes from India's dazzling film industry, Bollywood. 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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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.
One tear falls and then another; Across hardened cheeks they track. Upon green growth the wretched dew falls, And distilled regret makes fertile the fallow. White bells bloom on the touch of his tears, And he hears their chimes, Calling for him to come home.
I loved this; it is so Miltonesque, but it takes the right mind to spin forth the same idea-root and to infuse it with that level of mighty tragedy...
But hope does not die so easily. After mountains tumble and seas devour, And the earth is cleansed, White bells bloom again in the spring:
Thanks so much, Spice! I really fly by the seat of my pants when it comes to poetry. As you know, I love Paradise Lost and its themes, so there's bound to be a bit of Miltonian influence here. :^)
Author's Response: Thanks so much, Spice! I really fly by the seat of my pants when it comes to poetry. As you know, I love Paradise Lost and its themes, so there's bound to be a bit of Miltonian influence here. :^)
It truly is one of the few looks at the complexity of Melkor. You have given us fanfics that take a look at various sides of Sauron, but most people think of Melkor as one-note evil.
Thanks so much, Oshun! I'll admit that the Dark Muse's Big Boss gives me pause, but Melkor's fall I see much like Milton's Lucifer: greatness and so much promise gone awry. I'm also influenced by the Morgoth Tolkien depicts in The Lay of Leithian -- a somewhat more "human" Diabolus.
Lovely, if I may use that word. And yes, it does feel Miltonesque - the words sort of come to life and touch the same heartstrings that the poetry of Paradise Lost did for me.
Such a sad, poignant look at Melkor.. and, look, I never thought I'd ever say that. ;) I don't know much about the technicalities of poetry, but I know that this has moved me. Thank you for sharing this. :)
And thank you for your kind words, Klose! I'm glad this worked for you. As I've told others, I have no intention of trying to imitate Milton (a more daunting task than mimicking JRRT IMO), but his themes certainly influence me. Plus I love alliterative verse even though I have no idea what I am doing with it. I just go by instinct.
My take is that a great villain can be both evil and tragic so I'm gratified that you think I captured it here.
You have a genius for elucidating the soul in the most irredeemable of Tolkien's characters. A beautiful, touching poem that reminds us there is always hope.
Thanks so much, IgB! Yes, there is always hope, and with hope, we are also so often presented with choices. The themes of fate and free will in Tolkien's writings are so powerful in his legendarium. I probably come down more solidly on the free will side of the balance than fate or doom, and so I see his villains as being continually confronted with choices throughout their heinous careers, rather than just once.
Thanks so very much, Binka! I greatly appreciate the compliments.
Yep, the Dark Muse informs me that as I continue to delve into his character (as I see him in the Pandë!verse), then I really must not shy away from addressing his Big Boss a.k.a. the Prime Rebel (love that description).
How fitting that it is the sight of a small flower that should momentarily undo the mighty Morgoth. And even more fitting that it is Melkor's marring, as much as anyone's, that the flowers commemorate. For who in all of Arda is more fallen than he?
Thanks so much, Ithilwen. That particular passage from "Myths Transformed" has always intrigued me so I thought I'd tweak the concept a bit. And you hit right upon the theme: the fallen includes Morgoth's own marring as the result of his choices: free will plays a bigger role in the Pandë!verse than doom and fate.
In choosing the lily of the valley for your illustration, did you know that it in one tradition it is the flower that came from Eve’s tears after being cast out of the Garden of Eden? It also is a symbol for humility in religious paintings.
Your poetry is exquisite. I really appreciate the complexity you bring to Melkor. By leaving him room for hope and choice you bind his character to the rest of humanity, as we also must deal with hope and choice. Much more provocative and satisfying than the usual two one dimensional bad guy.
Thank you so very much, KyMahalei! This was one that sprang from brain to keyboard, bypassing the LC in my haste, so I am happy that you found the poem and liked it. The Pandë!verse puts a much stronger emphasis on free will and choices made than fate so I am glad that comes across as does the fundamental ties of Melkor to humanity.
I wasn't aware that the lily of the valley was symbolic of Eve's tears! And for humility! I clumsily stumbled across fitting symbolism :^). I'm such a scientist though. My first thought when I see lilies of the valley is how wonderful their fragrance is. The next is the complex (and highly toxic) array of cardiac glycosides they contain. Hmmm. Maybe some more symbolism there but from a different angle: the attraction that Melkor held for Man and his ultimately toxic nature.
Gorgeous poem, Pande. You write Melkor's brief moment of redemption when confronted with the miracle of a flower with such sensitivity. I love the idea that "hope springs eternal."
Thanks muchly, 'Scribe. This poem evolved while I was taking a walk last spring and spotted similar white flowers. It seems to me that Tolkien's villains all made choices that led them to evil paths rather than being fated to march into darkness. I tend to think that these choices might come back to haunt them now and again.
"Tears for the Fallen" captures a moment of possible redemption as the mighty Morgoth pauses in his destruction of the earth to contemplate a single flower illuminated by Anar's rays. He is suddenly taken back to the splendor and awe of creation and has a moment where he could choose a different path. [And he hears their chimes, Calling for him to come home.] Of course, his pride prevails and the flower is crushed under his boot. But in the end, it is the spark of creation that has the final word, even as they offer a tribute to that frail moment, characterized as "tears for the fallen."
The triumph of nature over the bleak landscape wrought by evil is a strong theme in Tolkien as embodied in the scene when the flowers twine upon the fallen King's brow at the Crossroads in Ithilien and Sam's glimpse through the smokes of the Black Land of the high and far off beauty of the stars. The poem also taps into those epic images of the fallen Lucifer as seen in Milton's Paradise Lost and Dante's Inferno.
Pandemonium's language is as beautifully wrought as the flower that Morgoth contemplates. The photo of the lily of the valley adds a nice touch, especially since (as reviewer Kymahalei pointed out) lilies of the valley represent humility and surely it is a lack of that quality that causes Morgoth/Lucifer's downfall. This is a jewel of a poem on every level: characterization, theme, and word choice.
Good god, this is a terribly, unforgivably late response to your fabulous review, 'Scribe, but nonetheless, a big heartfelt THANKS for me! I cherish this review.
OMG I totally forgot about reviewing your things, and I noticed you updated 'The Writhen Pool', but I'd rather stick to my original plan of commenting on the stories in chronological order, hope you don't mind. :)
Anyway... awesome, amazing, wonderful, marvellous, fantastic poem, Pandë! I confess I went "awww" when Melkor started crying... you almost made me want to hug him there! Sheesh, he had a near moment of redemption, but nooo... Actually, the fact that you write him as having free will is great, because the way I see it... If Melkor never had a choice, is he still evil? But then, does absence of free will mean absence of moral responsibility? Yeah, this is stuff that threatens to break my brain and boils my blood. Melkor, I have one thing to say to you: look at your life, look at your choices. (couldn't resist :D)
Thanks so much, Khaosity, and my apologies for the late response (though my appreciation of your review has not diminished in any way, shape or form). As you know, I favor villains that have shades of grey, even Tolkien's "Diabolus." I'm thinking a bit of Milton's Lucifer in Tears for the Fallen, but not comparing (AT ALL) my feeble verses to Milton's masterwork.
I know Tolkien scholars have written extensively (and analyzed exhaustively) of fate and free will in Tolkien's work, but as a fan fic writer who doesn't hold much with fate, it's all about free will and choice...and consequences thereof.
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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.