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.
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.
Created for the 'Geography/Maps/Places' prompt on the "Tolkien meta" bingo board, this is a collection of maps marked with the various people groups showing how they arrived and moved about Beleriand. This collection focuses specifically on the time from the arrival of the Teleri, Vanyar, and…
This is an analysis on whether the Sindar ate the Petty-dwarves during the years they hunted them, completed for the 'Literary Analysis' prompt on the "Tolkien Meta" bingo card.
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
Start to Finish
Choose one of the famous first lines from the list below and use it to start your story. If you are creating a fanwork other than writing, you may use one of the first lines to inspire your fanwork. 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.
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.
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!
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.
Even with your presence over there now, I'm glad you found it interesting enough to comment here. Thank you very much! It's a fun project and I was hoping these articles (articlets?) would attract a little interest. :)
As you know, I have followed you onto Tumblr now--but the place bewilders me rather, so I'm still glad that you are also posting these pieces here where it's possible to keep track of them properly!
Thank you very much. Tumblr can be bewildering, and it's definitely not the best place for easy accessibility, so it seemed appropriate to post them here as well - especially since Dawn mentioned that there was a shortage of meta posts in the archive proper. I'm glad you think these are worth tracking. :)
I am happy to see that you are posting these here! Thank you for sharing them.
One the absolutely most appalling and horrifying example for me of slaves of Morgoth comes from this passage from the account of the Battle of Unnumbered Tears:
Then the Captain of Morgoth sent out riders with tokens of parley, and they rode up before the outworks of the Barad Eithel. With them they brought Gelmir son of Guilin, that lord of Nargothrond whom they had captured in the Bragollach; and they had blinded him. Then the heralds of Angband showed him forth, crying: ‘We have many more such at home, but you must make haste if you would find them; for we shall deal with them all when we return even so.’ And they hewed off Gelmir’s hands and feet, and his head last, within sight of the Elves, and left him."The Silmarillion, "Of the Fifth Battle: Nirnaeth Arnoediad"
The incident, of course, cause a break in the ranks and preemptory assault on Morgoth's forces which resulted in great loss of lives. The implication also is, which is backed in other locations, that there were a lot of captives in Angband talen during the Battle of Sudden Flames.
I agree that that was one of the most horrific incidents, and it does show how widespread captivity (I made a distinction between that and slavery, although there likely was a great deal of intersection between the two unless the captives were spared for some purpose, e.g. Maedhros, Finrod, Húrin) was in Beleriand. The wakes of the Bragollach and Nirnaeth are mentioned in the original article, but the quotation certainly drives the idea home on a personal level. Thank you for commenting, again.
Thank you! A review from the Queen of Research Articles on my scribble here is high praise indeed. And Telerin fairytales sound fascinating (and, well, Lúthien is about the closest we can get and her fate isn't all that different, apart from the whole question of setting).
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.