Welcome to the Silmarillion Writers' Guild

Building Middle-earth - SWG Challenge - 15 July through 15 August 2026
New Challenge: Building Middle-earth. Let global architecture be your inspiration in this challenge, where you will work with a prompts that are architectural styles, locations in Arda, or both.
Cultus Dispatches: Six Demographic Takeaways from the 2025 Tolkien Fanfiction Survey
Cultus Dispatches: Six Demographic Takeaways from the 2025 Tolkien Fanfiction Survey. Ten years of demographic data from the Tolkien Fanfiction Survey show consistencies in who reads and writes fanfiction, as well as a few key demographic shifts.
Instadrabbling, July 4, August 1, and September 5, 18:00/6PM UTC, SWG Discord, #instadrabbling
Instadrabbling Sessions for July, August, and September. Instadrabbling continues on the first Saturday of each month on our Discord server.

Latest News

New Challenge: Building Middle-earth
Let global architecture be your inspiration in this challenge, where you will work with a prompts that are architectural styles, locations in Arda, or both.

Cultus Dispatches: Six Demographic Takeaways from the 2025 Tolkien Fanfiction Survey
Ten years of demographic data from the Tolkien Fanfiction Survey show consistencies in who reads and writes fanfiction, as well as a few key demographic shifts.

New Challenge: Epic 80s
This month's challenge features hundreds of fresh prompts from the bodacious decade of the 1980s.

Newest Fanworks

Dibbly Fresh, an Elfling-Sitters Club Story by annarobots

Need an elfling-sitter? Save time! Call The Elfling-Sitters Club and reach seven six experienced sitters.


Fingon, President
Daeron, Vice-President
Pengolodh, Secretary
Finrod, Treasurer
Maglor, Alternate Officer
Salgant, Snack Officer

The Orphan Princess and the BFG by octopus_fool

Elwing is fleeing towards the Havens of Sirion when she spots a nightly visitor. 

Silk Road by Artano

During a visit to Círdan, Finrod discovers a new hobby involving tying ropes around various objects.  Now, he's ready to take it to the next level, but there is a small kink in the plan - he wants a spotter to make sure everything goes well.  Fortunately, Edrahil is available.

Shepherd Princess by Himring

A princess and her sheepdog. (Drabble featuring a young Ancalime.)

A Thousand Winds that Blow by StarSpray

When uneasy dreams bring him back into Beleriand, Daeron finds a pair of twins who have lost their home, and an enemy who has lost himself. The Shadow's reach is growing ever longer, and if they are to survive, they must do it together.

New in References

Six Demographic Takeaways from the 2025 Tolkien Fanfiction Survey by Dawn Walls-Thumma

Data from the 2025 Tolkien Fanfiction Survey shows demographic changes in participant gender, age, and education and new revelations about neurodiversity.

Communities Do Comment: Expanding the 3C's of Commenting with SWG Data by Dawn Walls-Thumma

Expanding on my 2018 article "Why People Don't Comment," comment data from the SWG underscores community as an essential component to a robust commenting culture.

Fandom Draws the Line: Fanworks, AI, and Resistance by Dawn Felagund, Grundy

By definition, fanworks fandom does not draw a lot of boundaries, but community archives and events have taken a strong stance against AI-generated fanworks due to ethical considerations and member input.

Newest Artwork

A private audience by skywardstruck
Cosplay photo taken in the woods. Maglor stands on a rock, gazing downward at Maedhros while singing and playing the lyre. Maedhros sits at the foot of the rock looking up at Maglor. Maedhros wears a red jacquard robe with silver leaf-patterned accents and silver-colored sleeves, and has a red and silver circlet. Maglor wears a long red robe and capelet with gold and black embroidered swirls, and a gold laurel.

After wandering through the forests of Oromë, Maitimo and Makalaurë discover a quiet clearing, stopping to rest. With lyre in hand, the private audience begins— for this song, Makalaurë will only allow his brother to hear.

Rating: General
Warnings: No warnings listed

More than Memory by StarSpray
two silhouetted figures holding hands are walking away from the viewer thorugh a doorway into something bright white/blue/silver/gold, stitched on gray fabric with black stitches outlining the doorway and the hallway

"In sorrow we must go, but not in despair. Behold! we are not bound for ever to the circles of the world, and beyond them is more than memory." - The Return of the King

 

Stitched for the Famous Last Words challenge for the prompt: "And with that, they stepped into the gateway, together." - Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon, Wole Talabi

Rating: General
Warnings: Character Death

He chanted a song of wizardry by elennalore
Sauron in the song battle against Finrod. Watercolour art.

Sauron defeats Finrod in their song battle.

Rating: General
Warnings: No warnings listed

Around the World and Web

Celedriel Week 2026
A Tumblr event week focusing on the relationship between Celeborn and Galadriel.

Esoteric Tolkien Week 2026
A fandom event dedicated to the strange, otherworldly, and inexplicable in Middle-earth and beyond.

Tolkien Disability Pride 2026
This Tumblr event focuses on ALL creative works focusing on disability in Tolkien's universe.