Cultus Dispatches: "The Rings of Power" Is a Ripple (So Far)
Tolkien Fanfiction Survey data for 2025 shows that "The Rings of Power" TV series has not had the same impact on the fandom as the film trilogies did ... so far.
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: "The Rings of Power" Is a Ripple (So Far)
Tolkien Fanfiction Survey data for 2025 shows that "The Rings of Power" TV series has not had the same impact on the fandom as the film trilogies did ... so far.
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.
[Writing] The Judgement of Fëanor by Kingsdaughter613
Fëanor arrives in the court of Mandos. Let he judges be judged.
[Writing] Thoughts of Írimë, daughter of Indis by Alvian
Lalwen listens to the songs of the Edain and considers the strange shape their love and grief take. An exercise in Elven zuihitsu.
[Artwork] Weight of a Mythic Past by silmalope
Maglor reflects on the past after returning to Valinor. Created for the August 2026 "Building Middle-Earth" challenge.
[Writing] Alone Yourself and Nameless by StarSpray
It was easier than he had thought it would be to leave his name behind—to put on a new one when needed, like changing one set of clothes for another.
[Writing] Kesäkuningattaret by Erdariel
Celebrían ja Varyandë viettävät kesäpäivää Imladrisin puutarhassa.
[Writing] Wound Care by StarSpray
He’d ventured into the little fishing village in search of food and maybe a dry place to sleep for a night of rain and wind—he hadn’t expected this, to be bullied into a hot meal and a healer’s attention.
[Writing] Swelling from the Sea by annarobots
Tuor and Elwing’s recreational sailing excursion goes terribly awry when a carnivorous siren casts her gaze upon their vessel. With her song, she enchants the mariners and boards with evil intent. She kills and eats their crewman, she demands Tuor’s hand in marriage, and for dessert…
Building Middle-earth
Receive a prompt of an architectural style or a location on Arda—or both!—to inspire your fanworks. Read more ...
Pride
Create a fanwork using a prompt from an LGBTQIA+ person, choosing from music, art, poetry, and quotations. Read more ...
"The Rings of Power" Is a Ripple (So Far) by Dawn Walls-Thumma
The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit film trilogies mark perhaps the most influential events in the history of the Tolkien fanfiction fandom. As the Rings of Power show approaches its third season, data from the Tolkien Fanfiction Survey shows that it is not even close to matching the impact of the films ... yet.
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.
[Writing] Down the Long Years by Isilme_among_the_stars
Bilbo, the strange old hobbit with the wandering feet, senses something special in young Frodo the first time he sees the lad; as they become close, they find in each other a cameraderie not well understood by other hobbits. Five poignant moments between Bilbo and Frodo Baggins over the course…
[Artwork] The Mirror of Galadriel by skywardstruck
Smoke rises from the Mirror, where the Lady of Lothlórien awaits to share its visions.
[Writing] Bar-en-Eladar by Gabriel
Out of the shadow, light is born anew.
A Chieftain is dead. And whilst the events surrounding his death are unclear, a son tries to come to terms with his loss.
Innumerable Stars 2026
A character-based Tolkien fandom gift exchange is returning for another year of gifting.
Silvergifting Week 2026
A week dedicated to Celebrimbor/Mairon | Annatar | Sauron pairing, aka Silvergifting. August 10-16, 2026
Use the generator below to develop a random prompt for our Gnome Tome challenge! Click each button to roll a random prompt. Loathe your result? Click again to reroll as many times as you want.
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This is a splendid mix of…
This is a splendid mix of prompts!
170 of them! :D Thank you!
170 of them! :D Thank you!
I agree with you! This is a…
I agree with you! This is a great idea!
Excited about this. I…
Excited about this. I finally got my copy of NoMe earlier today. (I realize one does not need it to participate but am happy to finally feel like I can catch up!) I picked something related to Melian that I can use in a story. Hooking up my new monitor also today. So I feel like I just got rescued from a desert island.
Woohoo! I'm excited for you…
Woohoo! I'm excited for you and will be sooo glad to have you back! This weekend, I am tying up some loose ends, SWG-wise, that I started over the summer and had to let go once the busyness of moving + starting back to school set in, which got me wondering how you were doing, but knowing you were working on a small screen, I didn't want to bug you. And about an hour later, this comment appears! I promise give you some time to enjoy your new monitor and rejoin the world before I start pestering you about the bio again. :D I'm planning on writing Osse this month.
I have about 20 pages left in the NoMe and really need to do a more detailed reading again, taking better notes and doing more text-to-text comparison and all that ... but overall, I found it a really fun book. It felt totally different to me than the HoMe books, even though I saw it described in some places as a "13th HoMe"--perhaps what the HoMe might have looked like if CT wasn't so concerned with consistency.
I found the bit about Melian limiting herself to one child because she didn't want to lose more of her powers to the drain of pregnancy and childbirth extremely intriguing. A woman chooses career over children! It might be enough for me to forgive Tolkien for what was to come later in the book. ;)
I found the bit about Melian…
That is exactly what ensnared me and made me want to try to write a short something!
I could barely stand to be online on my tiny laptop. Now I can breath again. Basically, updating all my programs on big old computer and looking at the photos I took this summer. (I take photos so I can look at them on a big monitor and see what I have done and where I have been!) I bought a new keyboard too. That means I can type better also. (Not promising that will eliminate all typos!) I am getting ready to look at where I was on Maedhros when this all started!
Osse should be a terrific bio. Don't set the bar too high for me and make get writers block!
I am so happy you are in your new home! What a year. But it looks beautiful and pristine!
I suspected that's the bit…
I suspected that's the bit you found too! I've never been much interested in writing about Melian. That got me.
Enjoy the new computer! This summer, living at the dacha with Internet that was very spotty and stuck doing most of my work on a bed with a laptop (something I've never found comfortable, despite all the stock photos of smiling people happily tapping away on laptops amid their blanket nests), now having a desk again and a bookshelf and Internet that is on way more than it is off feels amazing, so I can only imagine how you feel. I'm psyched for you!
I'll keep the bar low for Osse. :D