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
Turgon's Rock Opera
On the anniversary of the publication of "The Silmarillion," we’re reflecting on the importance of music in Arda with prompts that come from rock songs. 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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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.
This is fantastic Pandemonium. As a musician I found this piece especially interesting. An as a new father the image of the baby in the sling gave me a smile. I pinted this off to read to Roisin tonight.
I really enjoyed this piece and I'm squeeful if I played any part at all in inspiring it. I loved the image of Radagast being followed by butterflies and finches and the beginning - and then the way that's picked up again at the end, as Radagast is helping with the tomato harvesting. I liked that Rivendell reminded him of home.
The image of the elven-smith Mélamírë grubbing out weeds with a baby slung on her hip - I think one of the reasons I like that so well is that I know from some of your other writings that she's still practicing her craft, so this is a strong, intelligent woman who's still using her brain and all of her skills despite having a family to care for.
It makes me laugh that the same song used to create Luthien's long hair and the cape made from it is used here in a different capacity - simply to contribute to the nourishment of the family. Living in a northerly climate, I certainly empathize with her problems with a short growing season!
Oh, and the tomatoes that you brought me last autumn ended up making an incredibly tasty tomato soup with pancetta. Mr. Steel started off turning up his nose and saying he didn't care for tomato soup and then ended up eating three quarters of it. Fresh ingredients make all the difference!
Thanks so much, Steel! Yes, I like your Radagast a great deal.
Although Mél still practices her craft, I expect that an infant (not to mention the rest of her brood -- Melu is her youngest and last child) has an impact on her priorities and energy. However, she has a great deal of help with her family, i.e., the three mortal women who came back to Rivendell with her and likely other denizens around Rivendell, so she still gets to the forge to work. Mél's use of the song is consistent with her other uses of "the deep arts" which tend to be understated (the unnamed smith who forged Andúril, the unnamed artisan who made Galadriel's Mirror) vs. Lúthien's far more famous exploits.
That tomato soup sounds fantastic! No wonder Mr. Steel liked it. IIRC, that's a William-Sonoma's recipe, right? I'll have to try it!
I love the idea of the wily old wizard sneaking up behind her while she practices her deep arts. Great stuff. If I could do that I might try my hand at tomatoes on my fire escape. Love how comfortably unrepentant she is with him. Love the tow-headed baby chewing on her hair.
Thanks so much, Oshun! Likewise, I wish I could "magick" less-than-adequate tomatoes into ripeness. I expect that Dawn's Fëanorian babies from AMC, who often gummed braids, had an influence here! Funny how others' canon winds its way so naturally into one's own.
Yayz! Loved the mention of Luthien and the sharp contrast between her and the Istyanis. I think she is a great Middle Earth version of a woman who can balance career and family life very well.
"I think she is a great Middle Earth version of a woman who can balance career and family life very well."
Mélamírë would be the first to note that she has a lot of help which enables her to do this, but that the balance is not an easy one and sometimes (maybe often) goes off-kilter. But I'll get to that. :^) Thanks so much for reading this little snippet and the compliments. :^)
This story has a very homey feeling to it, a sneaking wizard ;), the singing Istyanis with her baby, the tomatoes, all make a very nice picture -- like there's finally peace after the storm.
The mention of Luthien's hair made me laugh :D
Lovely piece. Thank you for sharing!
PS. I'm behind on reviewing ::sigh:: Hope to re-read and review The Jinn soonish.
Delightful! It's always fun to see Mélamírë, and nice to know she eventually made it back to the western part of Middle earth. And it's even better to know she has her priorities straight when it comes to wielding great power! A ripe tomato's worth a thousand magic rings! (I'm really curious about the story behind that baby though. Cruel Pande, whetting our appetite for more fics like that!)
Thanks so much, Ithilwen! I know you can understand what a powerful force ripe tomatoes represent. :^D
"I'm really curious about the story behind that baby though. Cruel Pande, whetting our appetite for more fics like that"
Heh. Yes, I am meeeean. I'm thinking that baby may very well be Noam Chomsky's (of the Pandë!verse) great^nth-grandfather. Said baby gets an in utero mention in "Scent of the Sea," which is buried in the vaults (3rd page, I think) of my Eregion/ost-in-edhil LJ.
Ah, I like the contrast between the might of Mélamírë's song of power and glittering words and the dirt on her face and the overall "ordinary day" feeling of picking tomatoes with her baby in tow.A very summery scene, I could almost taste the lovely ripe sweet tomatoes...
PS. If you ever learn Mélamírë's trick please pass the recipe. Maybe the DM will tell you the secret if you ask him nicely? ;o)
I picked a story from your collection at random this time, so I have yet to find out who exactly Mélamírë is, but the story is lovely! I like the explanation for Luthien's hair, too. It makes sense. Mélamírë seems much more down to earth in her use of this particular ability though. :P
In this ficlet, Radagast comes upon an elf woman, Pandemonium’s original character Mélamírë, employing her special talents in her garden. I really admire Pandë’s ability to evoke a lush scene with few words. I can feel the hot sun; see the fluttering butterflies following Radagast; Mélamírë bent over her plants, her baby lying heavily in the sling while busily gumming her mother's hair; and the lusciously ripening tomatoes. Love the interaction between the two, especially Mélamírë’s comment about Lúthien. [“It's a matter of priorities, old man."] And I can just taste the tomatoes, indeed the [“very essence of summer.”]
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.