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.
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Bollywood
Prompts this month are films, songs, and tropes from India's dazzling film industry, Bollywood. Read more ...
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Holiday Party
No matter if you're in the Northern or Southern hemisphere, it's a time of year to think about holidays. Whether you're bundling up in blankets or slipping a swimsuit into your suitcase, we invite you to an SWG holiday party! 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.
These two prologues… They took my breath away. Such pain and grief. The difference in their circumstances and yet the similarities… I'm very much looking forward to seeing where this story goes, Elleth!
Knowing that the emotions came through clearly is such a relief, and I'm especially happy that you picked up on the similiarities between the situations. These will become important down the road. Thank you so much, Indy!
Oh, Elleth! This is just...harrowing, a very dark and compelling premise, that these youngsters would be abandoned in the fanaticism that surely must have consumed their parents.
The idea of utter darkness and how alien that would be is horrific enough, but frank exploration as you and Dawn (Work of Small Hands) have done is amazing. Calassë's disaster with her soup, and her quandry about feeding her baby brother? Gripping. I'm drawn to fiction about dystopian settings, and holy moly, this chapter is right. there.
This is especially chilling:
It is not only the pollution of Melkor and Ungoliant, but now that the Trees can no longer dissolve them, fogs are also drifting in from the sea. Both are mingling, and falling down as this dirty rain. It would be best if we did not expose ourselves to it.
Thank you so much! I'd be lying if said I weren't thrilled that you're enjoying this, especially since I had my doubts about the reception of this chapter, pleased as I was with the way it turned out - a young OFC, and shining such a close light on her for that frank exploration (as opposed to someone better-known and loved like Eärwen)? Eeesh. So reading this is balm for my poor writerly soul :^D, thank you so much! This is going to stay dystopic for quite a while, and it's going to get worse before it's going to get better, so I hope I can keep you hooked. Wouldn't want to imply that the Darkening was an easy time, after all!
One really feels for Calassë when reading this--one thing after another, and then that grotty rain on top of it all.
I really liked the first Nerdanel section. The descriptions of all the different statues, and the various possible means of obliteration, are very memorable.
Great story. Now I'm speculating on whether the sections shall continue to parallel each other, or if ever the two shall meet.
It's definitely a case of far too much on Calassë's poor shoulders at the moment, and the rain is decidedly not helping - and I'm glad you're enjoying Nerdanel's section as well. Her next chapter will be going up on Saturday, and I'll keep alternating until... [spoilery mumble here]. :)
Poor Calassë! Everything she's going through feels very, very real. It's hard to read because you aren't flinching from the realities of the situation, and that's a good thing.
It is not only the pollution of Melkor and Ungoliant, but now that the Trees can no longer dissolve them, fogs are also drifting in from the sea. Both are mingling, and falling down as this dirty rain. It would be best if we did not expose ourselves to it.”
Thank you, Indy! It was quite hard for me not to flinch; there are future chapters I actually decided to cut on because they seemed a little /too/ much in terms of shock value (rather than the emotional component, which I'm hoping I kept intact).
I'm thrilled, too, that the pollution is coming across so well! I like it much better than the Unlight only (it's dark already, after all!) and there's plenty of canonical backing for actual physical impact on the environment by evil; I like it a lot because it does begin to feel less numinous that way.
Next chapter is due Saturday if all goes according to plan! :)
Poor Calasse! My heart broke for her when she burnt the soup. Of course, she would, in that situation, and of course it would be a disaster, in that situation. I hope she learns to accept Mariel's support soon, although I can see why she would have problems doing that.
The heartbreak in that scene felt very real when I was writing it, too. It's such a fraught situation, and then something goes wrong that ought to be relatively simple... poor girl. I'm glad you brought up Máriel in this, because she is going to become quite important in the long run. :)
I am still very much enjoying this story. (If enjoying is the right word, given the story's own emotions and subject matter. :P) I'm both worried and curious about the children and I love how complicated Nerdanel's family life and emotions are.
Thanks, Indy! :D Heh, and no worries about the terminology, I'm glad you're still enjoying it! I'm very excited (if that's the right word!) for the next few chapters especially, at any rate, and I hope it'll pay off for you as well. :)
And I have caught up. This is a viscerally dark story, Elleth, and I am relishing it. I love the parallel storylines of the abandoned youngsters and Nerdanel, Anairë, Nerdanel's family (I have always enjoyed your stories of Nerdanel and her family, and there's so much continuity here), Pelorë, and Ravennë, hinted at, but so present. The atmosphere you've captured is fantastic - a dark magical realism - and you know how much I appreciate that. Oh, and pulling that imagery from the Book of Lost Tales? Fantastic!
Yes, the world-building is excellent, but the characterizations rule all. I'm an absolute pushover for original characters, and Máriel and Calassë are wonderfully drawn.
OMG! The descriptions of the light failing! Those were excellent. And have I mentioned how much I like the concept of the Coiviengolmor" Have I? Have I? ;^)
As I have said before...this is a harrowing tale, and in the best possible way.
Thank you so much, Pande! I'm glad the updates appealed and that the parallel structure keeps working for you. And I'm not even going to pretend I wasn't delighted that you brought up the continuity question - way to tickle my ego, because I'm very much enjoying the attempt to populate my version of the Legendarium and make it internally coherent. (Still waiting for the day when I conclude that it's absurd. ;^D).
I've been pulling some things from the Lost Tales, yes! :) I still adore the level of detail and vividness that went into them, and given that my fic likes to go up close and personal it seemed like the logical chocice to draw from the more detailed accounts, if 'updated' to better fit the tone I was trying to go for. That was the easiest part of the writing, to be quite honest! In some ways, as much as I adore my characters, 'harrowing' applies to the rest of the process as well. ;)
I don't know what else to say, other than making delighted noises that the outcome works for you. Thank you!
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.