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!
Cultus Dispatches: Fanfiction and the Serious Business of Writer's Craft Concern about craft and improving as a writer is so common in the Tolkien fanfiction fandom that it can be assumed universal. But Tolkien Fanfiction Survey data suggests that a growing subset of authors may be pushing back on this assumption.
A Sense of History: Thálatta! Thálatta! While he never climbs the stairs of this Elf-tower, in Lothlórien Frodo Baggins descends a flight of steps to look into Galadriel’s Mirror, wherein he first sees the sea. This post examines the view.
A kind of follow up to "The Debate of Finrod and Andreth". Finrod left a few things out of his talk with Andreth, which led me to wonder what a member of a different Noldorin House might have to say.
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.
While he never climbs the stairs of this Elf-tower, in Lothlórien Frodo Baggins descends a flight of steps to look into Galadriel’s Mirror, wherein he first sees the sea. This post examines the view.
With Gildor Inglorion we finally climb the stairs of Elostirion and look on the view, and what we see appears to reveal a hidden thread in the story of Frodo Baggins. This post reads two annotated translations of two Elvish songs to step through a crossroads in the narrative to arrive at the tower on the margin of the story, wherein is a stone that is a window onto Valinor.
Bilbo recounts, in verse, the attempt of Gandalf, Beorn, and him to cross the Forest River after the Battle of Five Armies. Written for the Hungarian Tolkien Society's 2024 Mailing Competition.
tolkienshortfanworks challenge for June
The June challenge for tolkienshortfanworks has been posted to the community on Dreamwidth. The thematic challenge is: crossover / fusion / influence by another fandom or work. The formal challenge is: fixed length of 333 words. As always, these can be filled separately and combined with other challenges. New participants welcome!
June 2024 Call for Papers
Conferences and publications that have open calls for papers in June 2024.
Russingon Week 2024
Russingon Week celebrates fanworks about the Maedhros/Fingon pairing and runs on Tumblr and AO3.
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.
Wow, this is an amazing piece that captures the madness and deepest horror of the human mind. I like the build up in this story, from seemingly innocent driftwood, Maglor scoures nature until he found the harp he once upon a time had. Over the years his mind also forgot other things, not only the songs he once sang, the instruments he played, but also his morality, respect and his own human limits. You tell the story in steps, very skillfully if I may add, taking the reader just a step further in what they might accept Maglor to do... At the end I just cannot let go, I have to know how this ends and his total obliviant behaviour... it makes sense. We should be disgusted by it, to kill an innocent for such a thing and yet you show us how he came to it. I pity this Maglor and the last line Uli, it gave me the shivers. This is a great piece!
Thanks! :) I had been playing with the idea of this story for almost a year but never got around to sitting down and writing it, also the idea of writing horror scared me as it is not my usual style. I enjoyed figuring out what build up to use to get it gradually worse and the last line just fell into place. :) Poor Maglor is my favourite torture victim (also known as muse) at the moment and I am having way too much fun with him.
What a marvelously macabre story! My hat's off to you, ford_of_bruinen. I'm a horror aficionado (reading it anyway; I'm not necessarily adept at writing it), and you have done a masterful job in creating a dark, gruesome tale and a truly mad Maglor. Your use of details (dead crabs and mussels as the audience - and the connection the final lines make to that; the search for better and increasingly horrible materials for the instrument) builds the tension and beautifully (or horrifically? :^D) illustrates the depths of Maglor's insanity.
Thanks a million for an especially toothsome Halloween treat!
Thank you very much for the fb! It was my first attempt at horror and I have to admit I had much too fun writing it! I am glad you enjoyed it and that you feel I managed to write it well, it makes me very happy!
I'm not a big fan of modern horror, but folk-legend I do like. A mad Maglor... and now a bone harp! Could it get any better? That last line is superb... it leaves me with those poor villagers, who are about to have a really bad evening!
A wonderfully grim expansion of the storyline to show what happened afterwards.
Thank you very much, I am not a huge fan of modern horror either but Poe or Bradbury of also Neil Gaiman at times, those I like. I have never written another piece of horror either before or after but i admit this is one of the stories I have written that I have the most pride in. :)
Just went to review this story for the MEFA and realized I had not reviewed it here. So, here it is a cut-and-paste for the permanent record.
I highly recommend this story. First, the disclaimers: I do not like horror as a genre in general, nor do I believe from canon or my own extrapolations of it that Fëanor’s sons were mad. Yes, they were driven, compelled, unhappy, committed to something that they might have many times wished they could have undone, but unable to go back and start over again, only able to go forward. The least mad among them for me, probably would have been Maglor, after Maedhros despite Thangorodrim and Morgoth’s torture. They just did too many things that required compassion and hard work to be barking, slobbering mad. No denying that they did terrible things which they believed were necessary to fulfill their duty and that had to be done because of oaths sworn. That does not make a person, in and of itself, insane.
Having got that off my chest, I must say that I would absolutely recommend this story to others who might feel the same way that I did. It is beautifully written. The writer has constructed a perfect little jewel of a story. It is just so horribly dark and yet never graphic, although quite explicit. You really made me suspend my sense of disbelief and be willing to go along with your scenario here for the experience. What a compelling, macabre and creepily gorgeous story. It is just so chilling. The not-so-subtle sexual overtones, just were the final telling detail. It certainly is an antidote for too much fluffy, goody-goody Maglor! Congratulations on a job well done.
very late response to a wonderful review . First I agree with you I do not nor did I ever believe the sons of feanor to be insane, however then I started playing with the idea that maybe isolation and centuries alone could have played havoc on his mind. :) In my head it is set sometime after elves were all gone a long time back and only Maglor, unable to go back, remained. And the gradual madness... and so on.
You know, even with the somewhat graphic murder, I have to admit I felt more of a profound sadness at reading this than horror. Don't get me wrong, this is one of your best stories by far. The characterization is rich and the narrative is nearly perfect in its excecution, but that same narrative of escalating madness seems more tragic than horrifying. I think this is due to Maglor's significance compared to his victim and the desparation with which he seeks to regain his music. The knowlege that he has killed before also mitigates some of the tension leading into and during the murder despite its gruesome excecution, but it is the line about his vague recognition of blood really hit the tragic irony of the character home.
Like I said, I think this is an excellent story, just more tragic than horrifying.
Thank you for the feedback, I am glad yu enjoyed the story. I admit that even as I wrote it as a horror I did try, at leat in the back of my mind, to play on the tragedy of what one who had once been among the highest of the Noldor and the most talanted musician ever had come to. I enjoy reading your view on the story and am gla dyou could take that away from it. Once again thank you for the feedback and apologies for being over 2 years late replying!
Not gonna lie, I *really* thought he was going to use his own bones and guts! Still extremely creepy, holy heck. And poor Maglor, in that mental state, when he bent over because his first harp broke! What a delightful read.
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.