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.
Current Challenge
Bollywood
Prompts this month are films, songs, and tropes from India's dazzling film industry, Bollywood. Read more ...
Random Challenge
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.
I love stories within stories and this one is a terrific example of one! OMG! You really appealed to me with this one because I love, love, love the Princess Bride references--one of my favorite movies and so much fun because of how it deals with literary and storytelling conventions. You made it really work for you in this one!
Of course, I love Arwen with Elrond--the spunky little girl who has her father wrapped around her finger. It makes a terrific dynamic. Your stories are always so creative.
It was an honor and a privilege that you let me read over it for you. (You did not really need me at all!)
What a wonderful review! Thanks so much! I love Princess Bride too and tried to channel that a little so I'm glad you caught that when you read it. I thought it would be fun to have Arwen listening to the story of Beren and Luthien as a child since it reads so much like a fairy tale. The fact that it's also her family history is icing on the literary cake. "I love Arwen with Elrond--the spunky little girl who has her father wrapped around her finger." I'm glad that came across too. It was a pleasure to write the family in their happier times. Thank you for the review and the much appreciated beta. You gave me the title and that great quote. This story would be much poorer without your contributions. I know I always say it but it's true, you really are the best!
This should be filmed and added to the LotR movies as an appendix, spin off, or prequel. Really. I was just reading and reading, hoping it would never end (just as I remember watching the FotR with the same feeling). Great story within the story, also an amazing response to the SWG current challenge. Thank you so much for sharing! Awesome read!
Thank you, Robinka! That's quite a compliment and I truly appreciate it. I'm glad you enjoyed the read, and that you took the time to review. It was a lot of fun writing young, tomboy Arwen here. Oshun suggested this would make a good story for this month's challenge too.
Oh man, Elrond is going to punch himself in the face for this later in his life! I enjoyed the bed-time story and Arwen's demands for kick-ass women. :)
Thanks for your comments, Hrymfaxe. I just had to add that part at the end, poor Elrond! Even though Arwen didn't get much of a write up in LOTR I know she had Luthien's intrepid spirit in her.
Thanks so much, hennethgalad. I'm so glad you enjoyed reading this and that the Beren and Luthien retelling kept you reading along. I really appreciate your comments.
Thank you, Himring, I'm so glad you enjoyed this and I appreciate your comments. I thought it would be fun to imagine what Arwen would have been like as a small child with the twins and tales of Elven heroes as her influences. I think they would have made her the strong woman she became.
I really enjoyed this retelling. Arwen's reactions are often this reader's! "There was a prophecy about the dog?"
This line:
"And I promise not to send him on a hopeless quest."
That got me in the heart, even though Aragorn survives. I always love him at the Black Gates, when it seems like he will lose everything, and still does not give up hope.
Thanks for your comments, Lordnelson. I'm glad you liked the prophecy line. That's the first thing I thought when I read that part of the story. :-) And the quest line was too good to pass up considering future events. The Black Gate scene is one for my favorite Aragorn moments too!
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.