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…
Current Challenge
Bollywood
Prompts this month are films, songs, and tropes from India's dazzling film industry, Bollywood. Read more ...
Random Challenge
Pride
Create a fanwork using a prompt from an LGBTQIA+ person, choosing from music, art, poetry, and quotations. 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.
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.
Scribbles & Drabbles 2024
A chill Tolkien event, where artists make art, and authors write little stories in response. Begins in June and ends in November.
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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.
Hmmmm! I'm sure that Melian has good reasons for withholding information (some kind of Noninterference Directive?), but like Galadriel, I'm sure she can control her gift a lot better than she lets on - although to be fair I'm willing to believe her that it's intuitive and impossible to teach (let alone to an outsider...). The reference to By The Light Of The Roses made me smile!
Loved the observations about parents - having such high hopes for their children, and (hopefully) ultimately accepting that their children may take a different road.
I'm a little ashamed of myself for treating so lightly with both Luthien and Melian in this story! If I had started early or tried harder, I would have painted them a little deeper! But I really was determined to stop my endless procrastination and punish myself by posting on time. I will do better next time around.
I think what I had in mind is with this close third-person POV is to show Galadriel doesn't know or understand either Luthien or Melian very well. I do think Melian might enjoy teasing Galadriel a little--so young and so opinionated and sure of herself.
I am still trying to accept that children cannot be more easily groomed to do the best thing! Experience cannot be gained secondhand. Parents will only beat their heads against a stone wall until they are battered and bloody if they think they can transmit wisdom by wishing it to be so.
Well, it's fair to assume that Galadriel is taking a Noldorin, straight-forward, end-product-oriented approach, so she doesn't really grasp Melian's the-journey-is-the-end, a-bit-here-a-bit-there approach. Two completely different styles of craft, I suppose! But since this is written close to Galadriel's view, it's easy to fall into the trap of adopting her view. ^^
I like how the two are feeling each other out here, trying to get information without giving away too much. It makes sense for their characters. I thought Maitimo's attempt at rose breeding was funny. I didn't know that was from Dawn. But I did recognize Pande's Withren Pool. Nicely borrowed.
The description of Luthien is fun too. No one ever wants to follow mom's advice, do they? a86;
This was an enjoyable read. Im happy I got the alert for it.
You almost got an earlier alert--to Beta read it for me, but I did not finish it until within an hour or so of when it was due! Awww! Thanks for reading it and commenting!
I love this idea for how she crafted the mirror! I suppose I had always thought it came later, when she moved to Lothlorien, but I just adore this conception of it as a work in progress - new headcanon accepted! (Also, as someone who's currently moving, now I'm just imagining Galadriel making Celeborn schlep that thing around while they moved across Beleriand and Middle Earth for three ages...)
Wow! Thanks so much for reading. I wasn't actually insisting that was where/when/how she made her mirror, but when she started thinking about it. Perhaps she didn't make it until much later. I think she got a lot of ideas about trees and climate control from Melian, however!
I do like the idea of Celeborn dragging that heavy bird bath around Middle-earth for her. I love the idea of Celeborn not being crazy about the concept in general, but one has to choose their battles. I figure they had a few.
Sometimes Lúthien transmitted an aura of being not quite human, reminiscent of one of the Ainur in Eldarin form. At other times, she reminded Galadriel of a beautiful and privileged, spoiled only daughter of a wealthy noble of Tirion. But she could be humorous and surprisingly kind at times. Beleg had once voiced within Galadriel’s hearing that Lúthien was easier to love than to like.
Oh, what terrific characterisation! A few lines and I feel I know her - perfect.
I really like the idea of Maedhros breeding roses, and the symbolism that he only creates ones with smaller thorns :/ I must read Dawn's fic - and Pandemonium's!
What a lovely one-shot, Oshun. I like your Galadriel enormously.
It's an interesting idea that Galadriel had been developing the idea of the Mirror so early on!
One can see that in Doriath that might be viewed as a rather Noldorin approach, also that Melian and Galadriel might not be on the same page immediately, about what Melian is willing to teach and what Galadriel is willing to learn.
Thanks for reading and commenting, Himring! I don't think this is the most serious story I have ever written, but I did have fun contrasting Melian and Galadriel's attitude about their methods, but there is a similarity between perservation and guardianship between Doriath and Lothlorien.
The birdbath usage was one of my lower bids for a laugh! Some of these characters are treated with enough habitual reverence in the scholarly articles I read that I cannot resist poking fun at them.
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.