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.
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.
[Writing] No Time Have I by Flora-lass
A Silmarillion acrostic.
[Writing] I called it Fate that I should fail by AdmirableMonster
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…
[Writing] All of you by chrissystriped
Elrond and Celebrían celebrate their anniversary with their family.
[Writing] Lament for the Singer by daughterofshadows
A short thing about Maglor, death and grieving.
[Writing] Cosmological Poems of Arda by AaronAzrael
I would like to share my revelations of Tolkien's Universe in the form of narrative and emotional poems.
[Writing] Eä's Redemption by AaronAzrael
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…
[Artwork] Map of Valinor by Aprilertuile
My newly drawn map of Aman, as complete as I could make it.
Bollywood
Prompts this month are films, songs, and tropes from India's dazzling film industry, Bollywood. Read more ...
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 ...
Fandom Chocolate … or Authors Love Comments by Dawn Walls-Thumma
[]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.
Passing Ships by Simon J. Cook
[]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.
Fanfiction and the Serious Business of Writer's Craft by Dawn Walls-Thumma
[]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.
[Writing] Staging a Battle by StarSpray
[]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.
[Writing] From whose bourn no traveller returns by losselen
[]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.
[Writing] Sand Sorcery by StarSpray
[]It is well known that Psamathos does not leave his cove. He does not like to get his feet wet, and prefers to spend his days dozing under the sun.
Fellowship of the Fics: Summer Stories 2024
Fellowship of the Fics offers four weeks of summer-themed prompts during the month of July.
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.
July 2024 Call for Papers and Proposals
Conferences and publications that have open calls for papers and proposals in July 2024.
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.
Oh, this was lovely! Both of these OC’s of yours are very dear to me, and I always enjoy reading new stories about them. Sharû was rather wary around Mablung in the beginning, and the Orcs’ concerns about Melkor’s motives are valid, what if Melkor wants to dominate them to get his powers back? It must be a stressful situation, even though Mablung tries his best to convince him that Melkor is changed. Mablung is so sweet – and the poor elf is feeling cold so easily. That sweater sounds like a very useful present! And it was very considerate of Sharû to ask if Mablung felt comfortable to travel to the island with him. Their positions had been so different in Angband. But I think this little meeting was really important for both of them.
I'm so happy my love for my OCs is shared by my readers.
A lot of Sharû's people are carrying their worries about Melkor being pardoned to him and he is worried, too. They are afraid their former king might force them to fight their new friends. He doesn't know how far he can trust Mablung's judgement (he fell in love with Melkor, after all, and Sharû thinks that a little mad in and of itself), but it does calm him a little, that Mablung is so sure.
Sharû has experience with meeting Angband-elves and while Mablung seems surprisingly unfazed, he doesn't want to presume anything. He'd rather be too careful than not careful enough. He's so happy when Mablung offers him his friendship. Mablung has grown and changed and everything feels different in Aman from when he was a boy -- and Melkor is not there with him -- and I think he reaches out to Sharû not only because he doesn't want him to feel guilty but also because he's someone he knows, someone he shares a past with, in an unfamiliar place.
Mablung is so relieved to have something warm to wear now!
This certainly is a novel view. I haven't read your AU fics yet and I'm now intrigued to discover more. Orcs in Aman really appeals to me, since I don't subscribe to anything being inherently evil, and certainly not the idea of being undeserving by dint of species or any other imposed circumstance. But no matter how progressive a person is, it takes time and conscious effort to overcome long-held prejudices, and I like that "Mablung didn’t feel any different around him than he would have around an elf." That Melkor has changed his mind (through torture?) and that Mablung is so certain about this is intriguing, although I imagine I'll find some answers when I read more of your AU.
I really relate to Sharû's need to give the gift, and that Mablung's warmth on his trip back to the mainland is as much from the friendship in which the jersey was given as from the wool. A lovely, heart-warming fic. Thank you!
Thank you for reading despite not knowing the AU! I'm glad you enjoyed it nonetheless.
I have a very soft spot for orcs and don't think they are all evil just because they are orcs. My headcanon is that Morgoth and Sauron certainly tried to turn them all into soulless killing machines, but it didn't always work out that well. Most of them have the potential for good, buried more or less deeply, but it's hard to be good in a place like Angband – or if no one of the ‘good guys’ is giving you a chance.
Sharû feels guilty about their past and he knows he can't really make it up, but giving this small gift is at least something and Mablung (who is the most forgiving person in all of Arda, I might add) is very happy that they can be friends now.
If you are so inclined, you can find the story about how the orcs ended up in Aman here: Finding Lost Family (only on AO3 right now) It's linked with Mighty Love, but works on its own. (Don't be surprised at the presence of Ecthelion, in my AU he wasn't killed in Gondolin, but taken captive.)
Melkor is very broken after his second imprisonment in Mandos, he doesn't have it in him anymore to fight, even if he wanted to. But his change is mostly due to falling in love with Mablung and also living with elves and coming to care for them and realising that there are more important things than power and world domination. (If you feel like tackling Mighty Love itself, which at almost 500k words is admittedly very long, I also feel the urge to warn you that it gets very dark and dub/non-con in places, especially in the first third of the story which is set in Angband. Also my translation skills got a lot better over the course of translating it, so the first chapters might sound a little rough.)
It is really touching, that developing friendship after those harsh previous experiences!
And I like the idea of that orc-knitted colourful sweater!
Mablung is unable to bear grudges and right now he's a little lost in this place he knew when he was a child but he changed an it changed. Sharû is someone he knew in the life on the other side of the sea, it feels good to start a friendship with him.
Thank you for reading and commenting!
Site © Dawn Felagund
Logo © Bunn
All copyrights for creative work hosted on this site are retained by their creators.
This site is built using Drupal and the theme W3CSS.
Characters and stories associated with J.R.R. Tolkien's works remain the property of his estate. Creative work using this material has been written solely for the enjoyment and enlightenment of its creator and their associates. No profit is made on the materials shared on this site.
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.
chrissystriped has requested the following types of constructive criticism on this fanwork: Spelling, Grammar, and Mechanics, Style. All constructive criticism must follow our diplomacy guidelines.