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 ...
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.
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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.
Thanks so much, Indy! This has been lingering on my hard drive for a while now, and being under the weather yesterday (and hence not up for work-related writing), I fiddled around with the fic a bit and decided to post it. Very glad that you had a read and reviewed!
I'm glad to be part of that limited audience; Pandë-verse fic is a treat that's not to be missed, and you more than delivered! Sad, of course, in the first two chapters - but convincingly so, and the backdrop of their love scene did leave me with a lump in my throat.
But the two of them as girls were adorable and I loved the idea of dwarven clockwork toys as well as the impromptu trip to the forges - I'm sure that meeting turned out to be formative for them both!
And of course you're very welcome to future language help, whenever it's needed. Wonderful work, Pandë.
Thanks so much, Elleth! Oh, yes, you are definitely part of that limited (and high quality!) audience. :^)
These ficlets are a bit rough and maybe less developed than some of my other stuff, but with a little downtime yesterday, I fiddled around with the drafts a bit and decided what the heck, why not post it? That decision might have been prompted by coming across a certain Tumblr-post bemoaning the lack of female characters and femslash *whistles innocently*. Because Mél and Dísa are OFCs, they are of limited appeal (versus, for example, some of the more prominent pairings of canon characters like Aredhel and Galadriel or Lúthien and Galadriel or [my favorite] Lúthien and Thuringwethil), but I'm way too fond of them not to give them their own series of ficlets.
I know I have read some version of this before. It's absolutely fantastic.
The sense of loss, so clear at the beginning of the story, the rich and sweet eroticism conveyed so vividly without any graphic detail in the next part is heartbreaking. And just when the heartbreak is most intense, you give the reader the momentary relief of the humor and mischief of that first meeting of the two girls, Dwarf and Elf, with such lovely hints of their grownup selves shining through sharp and vibrant.
It leaves me longing for more. Really great stuff. So happy that you decided to share it now!
Oh, wow, thanks so much, Oshun! Yes, indeed, you read the chapter about the two little girls when they first meet. I posted that on my f-locked LJ a good while back. As I noted to Elleth, this is a bit rough, and I'm not engaging in a lot of world-building here, but want to focus on Dísa and Mélamírë. It's also a way for me to keep exploring the ramifications of relationships between the quasi-immortal Elves and mortals.
These drafts have been rattling around on my hard drive for a while now. With a bit of downtime this weekend, I was able to fiddle around with them a bit and post them. It will be sort of a series that I'll add to when I can.
Really like seeing Mélamírë basically drop (almost literally) everything, knowing her mortal friend has so little time. Also noted the public formality between Mél and Aldis, though they actually know each other.
I appreciate that she keeps herself open to close relations with mortals, both here and in later stories, rather than insulating herself from the inevitable loss. Though with the violence of some eras of the history of the Elves, even associating only with immortals will not prevent grief...
It's so good to have women interacting on different levels! Mél, Dísa, Aldis, Culinen--I love them all.
I remember the third bit, when Mél and Dísa meet; it's such fun!
Thanks so much, 'Wench! One of the motivations I had for giving Mél that Maiaran blood was my notion that the latter confers an exceptional ability to adapt to change, far better than the Elves can (with reference to Tolkien's concept that the Elves of Eregion were seeking a kind of stasis or "embalming"). She's a vehicle, in a sense, for progress forward instead of looking behind in regret. Had I the courage to do so, my alternative story line for Mél was to have her lineage "captured" in mortal Men (and thus on to Oppenheimer, Hypatia, et alia) by the same means as Lúthien - finding a mortal Man as a companion and having children with him, but then losing her life in the downfall of Númenor, but...well, I just couldn't do it. Probably would have been the braver choice on my part.
"Also noted the public formality between Mél and Aldis, though they actually know each other."
Thanks so much, Himring, and definitely understandable that one needs to be in the right place for sad stories (or chapters). It was fun to write that bit about the two little girls.
I think the order you've placed these in is highly effective. The yearning sense of loss in the second one lends to the third, which is otherwise a fun romp, a bittersweet sense.
The image of two girls from different cultures bonding by disassembling and reassembling clockwork toys is priceless.
"The elf-girl opened her mouth, but snapped it shut, as if she meant to say something but thought better of it."
Not sure what she was really going to say, but I swear in my head it was 'superstitious nonsense'!
Hey, thanks, Huin! When writing the third chapter, I wondered what kind of toys a young Dwarf-girl might have, and it took me about 5 seconds to come up with "Clockwork (or wind-up to be accurate)!"
"Not sure what she was really going to say, but I swear in my head it was 'superstitious nonsense'!"
HA! Well OF COURSE that was what she was about to say! :^D
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.