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: 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.
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 majority of the Silmarillion was penned by a single Elf--an Elf who was so thoroughly written out as to appear only through the ways in which their perspective shaped the stories we see. This is their story, the historian's history, the Pennas Pengolodh.
The Exiles of Gondolin come to Sirion. The residents of Sirion welcome them, and friendship blossoms between the last remaining loremaster of Gondolin and a young poet of Sirion.
Fingon returns to Barad Eithel after a late-autumn hunt, finding someone unexpected with his wife. The night takes an even more unexpected turn for all three of them.
Current Challenge
Potluck Bingo
Help yourself to a collection of prompts on bingo boards designed by members and friends of the SWG. Read more ...
Random Challenge
Holidays in Arda
Set a fanwork in a place that you would like to visit on Arda, whether a city, region, island, or body of water. Read more ...
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.
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.
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.
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.
Subscribe to the SWG Newsletter
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.
I like this event from Maglor's pov and I especially like his interaction with Uinen. Her description and characterization works well. You have a vivid set of images both of the path of destruction of the wave and the newly-formed cataract of the seas. What a cataclysmic event.
Thanks so much for the review :) What I liked most about taking part in the last B2MeMonth was the way these really unlikely ideas popped up out of nowhere. I've never given Uinen any thought before, she's just been a name, but now there's an entire backstory looking to find its way out. I think a lot of the descriptions were based on half remembered television footage of tsunami aftermath, but there was also my childhood nightmare of a huge wave coming up over Cape Town.... must have been rather like that in Numenor, for sure.
Ohhhh...I love this. It's haunting, evoking images of the tsunamis we've seen lately, and the destruction left behind. I love the idea of Uinen coming to Maglor, and of him giving the Silmaril to her (not Ulmo). The detail of him never singing a note on a beach was great! It just smacked of Maglor to me. She's perfect; not quite easy to understand, but still manages to get her image home.
And then, her voice drifting in and out with the ebb and flow of the waves, almost drowned by the shrilling of the gulls, she told him who.
And why.
Perfect! I can hear it, see it, and smell it. Ah, lovely as always, even through the sadness.
Thank you, dearest, there's no better compliment than your last line :) This was a strange one, nothing to do with the Maglor ficlets I was trying to write at the time, but it was just 'there' as was her voice, I could really hear her .... high pitched, creepy-strange, blending with the ebb-flow sound of the sea. Maglor was just Maglor - he doesn't show up often so when he does I really enjoy spending time with him.
Maglor here, for me, is still a prince, even if his life is that of a vagabond. Who else would have a "chat" with a Maia? The description of that shore and the sea is so vivid, I could actually see the scene in my mind. But the strongest part for me is the end, because of it's minimalism:
She told him who. And why.
It sounds so ominous, so final, and it evokes the feeling of "no return, no hope" so much like the fate of the Elves in Middle-earth. It's the story of the Elves, even if it's not.
Hey Scarlet :) Thank you, and I'm delighted the descriptions worked so well for you. Maglor for me is always a prince, no matter what circumstances overtake him. And an artist, so in tune with the natural world and open to conversations with unlikely beings. I loved the thought of them having some kind of special connection due to the Silmaril, and choosing who to give it to struck me as very Maglor.
This view of Maglor is really interesting, and the relationship with Uinen - I have not thought of that before, that he denied Ulmo and of course the Valar too that way. I like that idea. I don't think they would have let the Valar have the Silmarils at any cost.
That final glimpse of her standing there and then not is like the sea coming in- lovely image and rather sad to think of Maglor left behnd and never going home.
I'm not sure where this idea came from, but it made a lot of sense as it unfolded. I really could not see him tamely tossing that Silmaril to Ulmo and then wandering off to live a life of misery, not Maglor as I picture him. Uinen is someone I would love to write again, but I haven't found a space for her yet. I'm glad you enjoyed her.
I really like the idea of Maglor and Uinen being....not friends, but friendly. I like that he goes to her for information, too. The way she speaks is intriguing, too, and makes this seem very vivid.
I liked this line a lot (possibly just because I like contrary people, haha):
"He’d heard the stories of Fëanor’s second born bewailing his loss in song as he walked the shores of Middle-earth, so on principle he never sang a note on a beach."
The ending was interesting, too. The kind of vagueness and the lack of Maglor's response to it made it seem all the more eerie, I thought.
Why, thank you so much for reading. What a lovely review :) I'm glad you enjoyed Uinen, she's rather special, and also that you liked Maglor's contrariness about singing on beaches - I can see him being very unimpressed with that particular rumour about him, lol.
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.