Artists Needed to Create 2025 Challenge Stamps
We are soliciting help from artists who want to help create the stamps we award to challenge participants.
SWG News
Tolkien Fanartics: Mapping Arda - The Second Age
In the third part of the Mapping Arda series, Anérea and Varda delle Stelle present a selection of fan-created maps of the lands of the Second Age.
New Challenge: Potluck Bingo
Sit down to a delicious selection of prompts served on bingo boards, created by the SWG community.
Bingo Cards Wanted for Potluck Bingo
Our November-December challenge will be Potluck Bingo, featuring cards created by you! If you'd like to create cards or prompts for cards, we are taking submissions.
New & Updated Fanworks
[Writing] Collection of Potluck Drabbles by Artano
This is a collection of true drabbles completed for the 'Four Words' drabble bingo card.
[Writing] After the Festival by Himring
At Ivrin, during the aftermath of the Mereth Aderthad.
A brief vignette.
[Artwork] Long-tressed Wingildi by Anérea
"... the long-tressed Wingildi ... spirits of the foam and the surf of ocean."
~ a painted sketch for Scribbles and Drabbles 2024.
[Writing] Seeking Sunlight by StarSpray
It was winter, and the sunlight that came into the caves was cold and pale, but Rían still sought it out, bundled up in all of the furs and blankets that they could give her.
[Writing] Primordial Daydream by Anérea
The Queen of Faery takes a little light trip down memory lane.
[Writing] Silence Under Starlight by StarSpray
In Valmar, after the Darkening and the Flight of the Noldor, Indis receives a visitor.
[Writing] Where Memory Walks by StarSpray
Neldoreth was both like and unlike the forests of Dior’s childhood and youth.
Current Challenge
Tolkien Meta Week
Tolkien Meta Week is a week-long event to encourage fans to create nonfiction works related to Tolkien's world. Tolkien Meta Week will run from December 8-14, 2024 on Tumblr and here on the Silmarillion Writers' Guild archive. Read more ...
Festival of Lights Fest
This is a fun and low-key event meant to encourage works about or inspired by Hanukkah, running this year in conjunction with the Potluck Bingo challenge. Read more ...
Potluck Bingo
Help yourself to a collection of prompts on bingo boards designed by members and friends of the SWG. Read more ...
Random Challenge
Plot Thickens
Create a fanwork that depicts characters in the act of plotting something. Read more ...
New in References
Mapping Arda, Part III: The Second Age by Anérea, Varda delle Stelle
A series of articles featuring fan-made maps of all the lands of Arda. Part III explores the island of Númenor and mainland Middle-earth during the Second Age.
Doom and Ascent: The Argument of ‘Beowulf: the Monsters and the Critics’ by Simon J. Cook
Simon reads 'Beowulf: the Monsters and the Critics' to conclude his account of the Anglo-Saxon tower of its allegory.
Why People Don't Comment: Data and History From the Tolkienfic Fandom by Dawn Walls-Thumma
A reworking of the 2018 article for Long Live Feedback that includes data from the 2020 Tolkien Fanfiction Survey, pointing to a lack of comments as related to skill, confidence, and community connection.
Featured Themed Collection
Part of our Themed Collection series for our newsletter, this collection features fiction, artwork, and essays that transcend the idea of Orcs as the enemy, instead considering their humanity.
Alliterative Verse for Arda by Rhunedhel
Part of our Themed Collection series for our newsletter, this collection features alliterative poems about Middle-earth.
Beyond the Silmarillion
[Writing] Homage to the Song of Durin by Flora-lass
Legolas is inspired by Gimli's song - and by Gimli himself.
[Writing] Partners in Craft by elennalore
Annatar realises that he might like Celebrimbor too much.
[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.
Around the World and Web
Festival of Lights Fest 2024
This is a fun and low-key event meant to encourage works about or inspired by Hanukkah, running this year in conjunction with the Potluck Bingo challenge.
Fluffcember 2024
Fluffcember is a Tumblr event with daily fluffy prompts during the month of December.
Hidden Paths 2025
Hidden Paths, an event dedicated to the celebration of smaller Tolkien canons, has released their early prompts for the 2025 event.
Teitho November/December Contest: Healing
The theme for Teitho's November/December contest is healing.
Lord of the Rings Secret Santa 2024
LotR SESA has been ongoing for twenty-one years and is running again this year as a prompt meme hosted on AO3 for all genres of Tolkien-based fanfiction.
The Burninator by Grundy
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The Burninator
Mairon might be greatly weakened, but stripped of the ability to reform a fana or not, he was still one of the ainur. Which meant he could still contact his mate. Which was a comfort on the one hand, but also meant he might get a question answered that had been eating at him every since the infernal girl said it in the first place.
What has happened to you??
Melkor’s voice echoed with outrage, able to hear and feel his diminished state.
That brat has happened to me, he admitted dejectedly. Though all is not lost – she now believes me beaten, which means she will not keep her guard up much longer. Assuming, of course, she does not fade…
He was still hoping that might be the case. He didn’t dare shadow her journey to her grandmother’s domain too closely, but he had gotten close enough to observe that she had not emerged unscathed. Physically, of course, she was in good health. So far. But he greatly enjoyed knowing he had not been the only one diminished.
I would rather prefer she did not, Melkor informed him. I have something better in mind for my favorite vampire slayer, but it will be impossible once she’s behind the walls my brother has erected around his precious land, much less if she is in blasted Mandos.
Well, one couldn’t have everything. His mate’s plan actually did sound much more enjoyable – and more fitting. All the same…
What did she say that is bothering you so?
Mairon hesitated. Perhaps it was ridiculous. Plenty of other things she had said over the years were. He might look foolish letting it bother him so…
Out with it, Melkor growled. I already plan to take her apart, but it need not go quickly.
What is ‘pizza’? Mairon asked.
The concept flowed from his mate’s mind to his own effortlessly.
In return, he allowed Melkor to see how it was he had heard of pizza.
After that, it was his mate’s anger on his behalf that bridge the vast space between them.
He wasn’t sure which was more heartening, the support, or the visual that had accompanied the original explanation. What an odd form of food. Perhaps that explained why the girl’s mind worked so strangely. Even by peredhil standards…
Worry not, Melkor assured him. She will come to rue her words.
He certainly hoped so. And at some point, he intended to visit California and sample pizza for himself.
After we beat her, I will have enough power to make that happen, my precious, Melkor assured him. And to restore you. But we must choose an opportune moment. We will have only the once chance.
