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.
Indy, I fell in love with this plot bunny the moment you brought it up. What a wonderful way to reconcile such a sad situation. I love this, not just because of its creativity, and not to mention its heresy, but I love the very realistic way you have portrayed a polyamorous relationship. I love how you showed them in their everyday lives, and the friendship between all three of them, and that it's very much a part of the love too. I loved how the women really seemed to have the upper hand in this, and that it wasn't Finwe forcing them together. And the idea of Feanor having two mothers is spectacular. This rings very true, especially to someone who has been close friends with people who do live an alternate lifestyle like polyamorory. I love how much thought you put into this. The imagery is gorgeous, and the bits of humor make it even more poigniant and meaningful.
This has always, and always will be, a story I treasure and enjoy reading again and again. Lovely work, Indy!
Thank you so much, Roisin! I figured that if I'm making it AU by the triad, I may as well go all the way and give it a happy ending.
I'm glad you find the relationship realistic, because it can be difficult to portray. I couldn't have Finwë be the driving force, because it didn't ring true (and it gives off some dubious vibes). Plus, I wanted to focus on the Mírel/Indis relationship because I know you like femslash. I can't see either one of the women being shrinking violets-- they married the king of the Noldor! (And Indis loved him enough to cause him to take it to the Valar. Strong woman to go against society.)
What an awesome, creative, idea! This was a wonderful way to retell a sad story into one I feel is plausible and enjoyable. I like the idea of Indis and Miriel being lovers. I have never seen anyone approach those two characters that way but I really like it a lot. Great job!
I hadn't read this before reading about it in your comments to MEFA. I have to tell you that I loved this angle in this relationship. I've never seen this approach before and I can see how well the concept works through your words. I love the unexpected. Thanks for writing this.
Thank you! Threesome/moresome relationships in this fandom are unfortunately rare, so that was part of my motivation in writing it. Mostly, it was just a fun idea, so I'm glad you enjoyed it.
I have to tell you that I love this! Just...they're all so happy. I love Finwë/Miriel/Indis in a happy working relationship together, and this is so good.
And I'm so glad that Elleth pointed this out to me, and that you wrote it. I sound like an utterly idiotic fangirl, but this is one of my fav three pairings. It's so rare, and I adore this fic.
Thank you so much! Half the reason I wrote it was because I wanted a happy ending. (I actually have a sequel to this, written during B2MeM earlier this year, but haven't edited it yet. Next year, hopefully.) No such thing as an utterly idiotic fangirl here; squee makes fandom what it is. But I must ask-- in sheer amazement and desire-- where are the other fics with this triad?! Again, thank you! :D
This story is just so cute and sweet and perfect I can't handle it! I just loved the interactions between Miriel and Indis - and that last scene with Feanor was adorable :)
Thank you so much! I'm really glad you enjoyed it! (This story sometimes makes me feel like the red-headed stepchild of fandom, but it's one of my personal favorites of the ones I've written. So I'm always thrilled to see that other people like it.)
Not knowing this was an AU outside of the relationship--I came to it via a link of Elleth's list of femslash stories--my breath caught when I realized that this change in detail had given the House of Finwe a happy ending. What a beautiful moment and a lovely surprise!
And the heretic in me adores the fact that this came about through the loosening of the constraints of the Valar, that their too-strict rules would have been what created the discomfort with Finwe's "complicated" (not at all by real-world standards, of course, but I think we're seeing more than a little of JRRT's Catholicism at work here) family situation, that all of the parties involved could have been content with greater acceptance of how things are versus prescriptive notions of how things should be.
I loved the bit of verse for the love scene. This was just perfect to me, for reasons I can't quite articulate. :)
Thank you! The summary doesn't give that much away (maybe, at this point I don't know), and to hear that you hadn't even had *that* and it worked for you? I'm thrilled. And I couldn't resist giving them a happy ending; it was pretty much the point, actually. Change one detail and things spin out from it.
It's definitely part and parcel of Tolkien's Catholicism. But things aren't easy in the world-- real or imaginary-- and trying to put people in boxes and define their behavior by "what should be" rather than what is often leads to harm. And with the House of Finwë… Well, we get the Silm.
I'm glad to hear that. The scene was the bit I was most nervous about (I was nervous (and still am, in some ways) about the whole story), and it's also the most explicit I'm capable of writing.
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.