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.
Heh, others have said that... I've really had fun playing with Thuringwethil here! It's been a nice (if a shade grisly) change from my usual Elves. Thank you for reading. :)
Thanks so much! To be honest, this sort of non-Tolkien-specific challenge is quite straightforward - but I skipped the one before it, which was a 'dangerous beasts' challenge: you'd think it might be easier, but working in dragons and wargs before they're meant to have been bred was more of a challenge than I was up for just then...
This was very evocative. Actually, I felt as if I was there (which probably isn't too good, I think, since it was such a dark, horrible place ;)). Very skillfully written, and the last line's contrast was very efffective. Well done!
Thank you! I am about to flood your inbox with replies, I think, so sorry for that - but thanks for all your lovely reviews! They have cheered me remarkably. ;)
I have been having fun playing with a distinct change of tone from the usual stuff with this set. At some point I realised I'd been spending too much time lately writing Elves being nostalgic and wistful, so thought I'd try the same thing with a different group of characters. So this descent into a dark, horrible place...
Thank you! I'm very glad it worked. There's plenty of nasty things down there - and Thuringwethil still waiting for when they come up - so I think they're going to have to run...
Thank you! I do like pulling back to this distant, impersonal perspective - it's a rather odd tone and you can't get away with too much of it, but it's nice to play.
This is an awesome set of most impressive and vividly written drabbles! It must have been both a challenge and a kind of blessing to gain freedom from Melkor (for a time, though) and still with all those beasts lurking around.
Thank you so much! That combination of a challenge and a blessing was really what I wanted here - I'm so glad it came across. And so glad you've enjoyed the set! I do appreciate it and am definitely spurred to get on with it as soon as I can (you are an awesome cheerleader, really! <3).
Yep, that's what I think a vampire might have thought, felt, and imagined. Poor beast, though. Loved the descriptive language of these pieces. Excellent!
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.