The Silmarillion Writers' Guild--An Online Community for Silmarillion Study and Fan Fiction

Back to Middle-earth Month 2010: The Final Battle

Imagine yourself far in the future from your favorite age of Arda. The Elves have long passed into the West. The Age of Men began millennia ago. Only in legend, largely forgotten, do the people of Middle-earth recall the Ring War, the ascension of King Aragorn, the last ship to depart from the Grey Havens. The world has again begun to change. The waves break on new lands, and a new threat passes its dark hand across the tired face of the Sun. Perhaps in the deepest and long-forgotten lore the people of Arda can find the secrets to overcome this new threat?

In this year's B2MeM challenge, you will write or draw your way to triumph for the people of Arda! The event incorporates a writing/art challenge with a quest game. You may play on your own or with a team, and all Tolkien-based writing and artwork is accepted! You do not need to be an SWG member to participate. For more information, please see the B2MeM 2010 website.

Current Challenges

Lost Letters
Your character is going through paperwork, an old trunk, or the dusty shelves in an forgotten part of the library when she or he discovers a letter from someone no longer present. What does the letter say? What does your character do (or not do) as a result of it?

Site News

B2MeM 2010: The Final Battle--Accepting Registrations!
We are accepting applications for this year's Back to Middle-earth Month challenge event. Please see the B2MeM 2010 website for more information on how to get involved!

February 2010 Newsletter
This month's newsletter wraps up Oshun's discussion of Glorfindel. Whitewave gives us a glimpse into his photo album, and Pandemonium's "Gothmog and Draugluin" comic shows the helpful Valar at their finest and Fingon ponders Maedhros's rescue. All of this and more can be found in this month's newsletter!

Help Haiti Auction a Success!
The fandom-wide Help Haiti auction benefiting disaster relief in Haiti was a huge success! Once all pledges are collected, the auction will have earned an amazing $115,000.00! Many members of SWG and the broader Tolkien fandom lent their support in different ways to this project. From the SWG mods--thank you! :)

A second auction will be held at the end of February. Watch this space for more information as we receive it.

Terms of Service Now Available in Finnish
The Terms of Service (ToS) for our site are now available in Finnish! Many thanks to Hallbera for doing the translation!

Around the World and Web

All Bent Roads
The All Bent Roads LiveJournal community is attempting to revitalize a discussion list about Numenor. The original question concerned how the Akallabeth might be depicted on film but has since evolved to a more general discussion of the texts.

LotR Genfic Community
For February LotRGen and Many Paths to Tread have not one but two new challenges! The February Challenge will have the theme "Send It In a Letter". Stories should either be written as a letter or contain a letter as a major part of the story. The element for the challenge will be a type of letter (e.g. "love letter"; "business letter"; "letter of recommendation"; etc). Stories will be due the weekend of Friday, February 12, and will be revealed on Monday, February 15. Please comment on this post to collect your element!

In addition, we challenge everyone to make at least four comments over the next few weeks, through the month of February. Please see this post for more information on our comment challenge!

Teitho
February 2010 marks a significant event in the history of the Teitho challenge: after five years of dedicated work, Michelle is stepping down from moderating Teitho. To commemorate this change, the theme for February will be Trading Places. It is said that each individual is the sum of his core personality and his circumstances. What would happen to our favorite heroes if their circumstances were changed? Trading places can also happen on a much smaller scale, but just as significant. This theme is about taking your favorite characters for a journey outside their usual purview, and seeing what comes up - from an anecdote or insight to a glimpse of a completely different world. As usual, you have one month to conceive, birth, and raise a story for this challenge with a gen-fanfiction featuring (or at least having a mention of) either Aragorn and/or Legolas. By February 25th, your story should be sitting safely at teitho.contest@gmail.com.

A Long-Expected Contest (ALEC)
The theme for March is 'Feeling Lucky?' It doesn't have to be based on documented events and need to be based on an actual character in the books. Each writer has until March 31st by 12:00 AM PST to turn in the story. Please include the proper formatting for LJ. Good luck and happy writing! For more information on how to participate, see the ALEC LiveJournal community.

Many Paths to Tread--New Archive Open to the Public!
Many Paths to Tread, the archive associated with the LotR Genfic Community, is now open to all Tolkien fans and writers, not just members of the mailing list. MPTT is a genfic archive and accepts stories based on all of Tolkien's books (including The Silmarillion!) up to an R rating. Stop by Many Paths to Tread and check out one of our 376-and-counting stories and do consider sharing some of your own!

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Welcome to SWG!

Two years ago, I realized that while there were many sites that archived stories based on the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien, none of them focused exclusively on the early mythology of The Silmarillion. Given the immense talent and enthusiasm of the Silmarillion fan-fiction community, it seemed odd to me that there was no place to share writing and research based solely on The Silmarillion and its related works.

And so I formed the Silmarillion Writers' Guild, a group that started small on Yahoo! and LiveJournal and has since grown to more than one hundred members. And finally, after almost two years of discussion and planning, we've finally realized our ultimate goal of having an archive devoted solely to featuring writing based on The Silmarillion.

SWG is still a young group, and I invite fans of J.R.R. Tolkien to join us as we work to increase our understanding and admiration of Arda's early history and mythology. Whether you are an author, a researcher, or an avid reader of stories based on his world, we welcome you to join SWG! Here you will find everything from hundred-word drabbles to epic-length novels, from poems to essays to experimental fiction and anything in between.

Interested in joining SWG? Anyone age thirteen or older is welcome to join our group. Please begin by reading our Conduct Guidelines and Terms of Service and joining here.

Just visiting and looking for stories to read? Check out our the most recent stories posted or search for stories about your favorite character or by your favorite author. Interested in what our members are reading, reviewing, and recommending? Check out our top ten lists!

We've come a long way in three years, and we're still working hard to make SWG a fun and valuable place for Tolkien fans to hang out online. Please feel free to contact us with questions or feedback at moderator@silmarillionwritersguild.org.

May the muses smile upon you!
Dawn Felagund
Founder and owner of the Silmarillion Writers' Guild

TheSilmarillionWriters'Guild

Welcome to SWG!