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!
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.
Tolkien Meta Week, December 8-14 We will be hosting a Tolkien Meta Week in December, here on the archive and on our Tumblr, for nonfiction fanworks about Tolkien.
New Challenge: Orctober Orcs on a quest for freedom seek a place sheltered and safe from the Dark Lord. Fulfill prompts to gather the clues needed to bring them to freedom.
The fates of the lovers have been sealed. After Aegnor makes a promise to Andreth he seeks council one last time from Finrod to reveal the identity of the maiden who had stolen his heart and hopes Finrod will share in his newfound happiness. However, it does not go well between the brothers, and…
Fingon rescued Maedhros from Thangorodrim. In the dungeons of Angband, a flicker of hope is lit. If they can escape, perhaps so can others. If nothing else, they must try.
Laughter and Mourning, the daughters of Húrin. An illustration for the 2024 Orctober challenge prompt “eyes”.
Current Challenge
Potluck Bingo
As the year draws to a close, we gather with friends and share memories and gifts and, of course, a good meal. And there’s nothing like a potluck to make sure there’s something for everyone! For our last challenge of 2024, we’re offering Potluck Bingo. We hope to have a smorgasbord of bingo cards made by you prompting a delectable spread of fanworks, with something to suit all tastes. (The mods will contribute a few boards to get things started. But as with any potluck, the more, the merrier!) Read more ...
Random Challenge
Heroes
Create a fanwork about a hero, whether the typical saves-the-world type or the unlikely, unsung, and accidental, those who have been forgotten or perhaps were never noticed at all, who made their worlds a better place. Read more ...
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.
The narrator of the Quenta Silmarillion uses death, grief, and mourning rituals to generate sympathy for or dehumanize groups of characters considered the Other.
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.
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.
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.
Kiliel Week 2024
Kiliel Week is a Tumblr event for fanworks about the Kili/Tauriel pairing.
November challenge at tolkienshortfanworks
The challenge for November has been posted to the tolkienshortfanworks community on Dreamwidth. Thematic prompt: refuge. Formal challenge: include imitation of a sound. As always, these can be filled independently and also freely combined with SWG and other challenges. New participants welcome!
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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 was a beautiful piece! The imagery was excellent, I was having all kinds of visuals throughout, and of course you kept pulling on my emotions. What a fascinating perspective on the Bragollach (I assume)!
But the whips at their backs were worse than the bright-eyed creatures before them, and so onward they went.
This is so good.
One benefit - or perhaps downside, she was not quite certain yet - was the fires had cooked some of them nicely and when no whips drove them from behind, some stopped and feasted on the dead.
Yes, this is gruesome, as you warned, but what an interesting detail. The way she mentions it in such a removed way, as if this is just a practical thing to do, is raw and real. Well, I guess it's cooked... eerr.
Roots curled up and hindered her path, branches grasped at her, tearing what little remained of her shirt. The branches shuddered in anger at her passing, but still she pushed on.
This is some of my favourite imagery. The idea of Nan Elmoth fighting her, even after Eöl is gone... I actually felt bad for her, being rejected no matter where she went, but pushing on.
Thank you so much! I wasn't quite sure exactly where it was all going to go when I started, and the end I thought it might reach ended up not quite materializing, but I think the end it has works very well for the overall mood of it.
I'm so glad you enjoyed it, and of course I love seeing what caught your eye. 💖
A vivid group of ficlets, cuarthol, with wonderfully grim details that fit the prompts so nicely and illustrated the plight of the orcs, bred as war fodder. I appreciated poor Kurn's dilemma, caught between the hammer and the anvil (At her master’s hands, death may well become a mercy withheld) and nothing to look forward to but an occasional full belly (even though, yeah, the food), and successfully avoiding pain or death, all of which could happen in so many creative ways. I loved her theft of the lock of golden hair and found myself rooting for Kurn and hoping she could find a better life.
Once I got started it was easier and easier to see through her eyes, however much that view might be unpleasant at times. But I very much wanted her to be a sympathetic character - I absolutely have an "Orcs are people" agenda! lol
Actually, some 18+ months ago, I wouldn't read a story like this. I mean, I was like, "Orcs?!?! Who would like to read about those creatures?!" :)
What changed? A year and a half ago the idea come into my mind, for a novel that happens in Mordor and the characters are orcs, and the idea just didn't want to go away. So I started writing :))) (It is a big project, and real life is not merciful, so it will take a long time. But I *will* finish it. Currently I am doing the first editing.)
So, I dove deep into orcs' world, and I am very interested in everything about them. So, to find a good story about the orcs, is now a real pleasure for me :)
A long and winding road to freedom, but she made it, with a great deal of luck and stubbornness! And by the end, I'm really rooting for her to make it to those mountains and survive.
That prompt "Not a lot of options" describes her general situation so well, but she copes as best she can.
Great use of all those prompts and so many convincing details!
I was delighted by how well the prompts worked out in the end. There were a few I wasn't sure about but by the time I got to them it seemed to just flow. 😊
First being driven ahead of the whips and then the fairly visceral descriptions of marching over bodies and eating the cooked ones with relish should have been more off-putting, but Kum is quite a likable character. I hope she finds the freedom she seeks.
Perhaps on some level as readers we are capable of meeting a character where they are and going from there. I'm very glad you found her likable, and I, also, hope she finds what she seeks. <3
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.