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: Scavenger Hunt In this Matryoshka-with-a-twist, you will solve clues that point you to the challenge prompts.
Sign-Up to Hand Out Scavenger Hunt Prompts Our May challenge will be a Matryoshka built around a scavenger hunt. If you'd like to hand out prompts (and receive comments on your work for doing so!), you can sign up to do so.
New Challenge: Everyman Create a fanwork about an ordinary character in the legendarium using a quote about an unnamed character as inspiration.
Cultus Dispatches: Fanworks, AI, and Resistance by Dawn and Grundy The fan studies column Cultus Dispatches returns with a history of how Tolkien fanworks fandom has reacted and resisted generative AI by drawing strong boundaries in a way that is not typical for the fandom.
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…
In his old age, Isildur's former esquire Ruinamacil, known to later histories only as Ohtar, writes his own account of his escape from the ambush at Gladden Fields and journey to Imladris, and the history of his friend whom Isildur ordered to flee with him.
Fëanor shrugged, studying the contents of his wine glass. “Something must be done about that house. It will fall down eventually.” “It does not follow that it must be you that tears it down single-handedly. Are you sure you do not want help?” “It’s not as though I…
Idiomatic
Raining cats and dogs. A short fuse. Up a creek without a paddle. A piece of cake. Sometimes colorful, sometimes puzzling without backstory or explanation, these delightful turns of phrase enrich our language—whichever one it happens to be. Prompts this month are idioms from languages around the world.
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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.
In a book as full of death as the Quenta Silmarillion, grief and mourning are surprisingly absent. The characters who receive grief and mourning—and those who don't—appear to do so due to narrative bias. Grief and mourning (or a lack of them) serve to draw attention toward and away from objectionable actions committed by characters.
This presentation for Mereth Aderthad 2025 discusses the parallels between the concept of abnegation in the scientific work surrounding the atomic bomb and in The Silmarillion. The relinquishment of self-interest in favor of the interests of others, abnegation was identified by Tolkien as a powerful act of spirit and reason. The legendarium has many examples of the complexities of abnegation, which parallel similar discussions held by physicists during and after World War II.
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…
Scribbles and Drabbles 2026
Scribbles & Drabbles is a fic and art exchange with a minimum word count of 100 words.
Russingon Week 2026
A Tumblr week event focusing on the relationship between Maedhros and Fingon.
Boromir Week 2026
If you are Boromir girlies/gents/stans/simps, then this event is for you! So, come join us, and bring your fanfiction, art, gifs, moodboards, and headcanons that highlight everything you love about our Captain of Gondor!
Silmarillion Epistolary Week 2026
Silmarillion Epistolary Week is a Tumblr challenge dedicated to creating fanworks to tell the story of the Silmarillion in the style of an epistolary novel.
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.
I like this event from Maglor's pov and I especially like his interaction with Uinen. Her description and characterization works well. You have a vivid set of images both of the path of destruction of the wave and the newly-formed cataract of the seas. What a cataclysmic event.
Thanks so much for the review :) What I liked most about taking part in the last B2MeMonth was the way these really unlikely ideas popped up out of nowhere. I've never given Uinen any thought before, she's just been a name, but now there's an entire backstory looking to find its way out. I think a lot of the descriptions were based on half remembered television footage of tsunami aftermath, but there was also my childhood nightmare of a huge wave coming up over Cape Town.... must have been rather like that in Numenor, for sure.
Ohhhh...I love this. It's haunting, evoking images of the tsunamis we've seen lately, and the destruction left behind. I love the idea of Uinen coming to Maglor, and of him giving the Silmaril to her (not Ulmo). The detail of him never singing a note on a beach was great! It just smacked of Maglor to me. She's perfect; not quite easy to understand, but still manages to get her image home.
And then, her voice drifting in and out with the ebb and flow of the waves, almost drowned by the shrilling of the gulls, she told him who.
And why.
Perfect! I can hear it, see it, and smell it. Ah, lovely as always, even through the sadness.
Thank you, dearest, there's no better compliment than your last line :) This was a strange one, nothing to do with the Maglor ficlets I was trying to write at the time, but it was just 'there' as was her voice, I could really hear her .... high pitched, creepy-strange, blending with the ebb-flow sound of the sea. Maglor was just Maglor - he doesn't show up often so when he does I really enjoy spending time with him.
Maglor here, for me, is still a prince, even if his life is that of a vagabond. Who else would have a "chat" with a Maia? The description of that shore and the sea is so vivid, I could actually see the scene in my mind. But the strongest part for me is the end, because of it's minimalism:
She told him who. And why.
It sounds so ominous, so final, and it evokes the feeling of "no return, no hope" so much like the fate of the Elves in Middle-earth. It's the story of the Elves, even if it's not.
Hey Scarlet :) Thank you, and I'm delighted the descriptions worked so well for you. Maglor for me is always a prince, no matter what circumstances overtake him. And an artist, so in tune with the natural world and open to conversations with unlikely beings. I loved the thought of them having some kind of special connection due to the Silmaril, and choosing who to give it to struck me as very Maglor.
This view of Maglor is really interesting, and the relationship with Uinen - I have not thought of that before, that he denied Ulmo and of course the Valar too that way. I like that idea. I don't think they would have let the Valar have the Silmarils at any cost.
That final glimpse of her standing there and then not is like the sea coming in- lovely image and rather sad to think of Maglor left behnd and never going home.
I'm not sure where this idea came from, but it made a lot of sense as it unfolded. I really could not see him tamely tossing that Silmaril to Ulmo and then wandering off to live a life of misery, not Maglor as I picture him. Uinen is someone I would love to write again, but I haven't found a space for her yet. I'm glad you enjoyed her.
I really like the idea of Maglor and Uinen being....not friends, but friendly. I like that he goes to her for information, too. The way she speaks is intriguing, too, and makes this seem very vivid.
I liked this line a lot (possibly just because I like contrary people, haha):
"He’d heard the stories of Fëanor’s second born bewailing his loss in song as he walked the shores of Middle-earth, so on principle he never sang a note on a beach."
The ending was interesting, too. The kind of vagueness and the lack of Maglor's response to it made it seem all the more eerie, I thought.
Why, thank you so much for reading. What a lovely review :) I'm glad you enjoyed Uinen, she's rather special, and also that you liked Maglor's contrariness about singing on beaches - I can see him being very unimpressed with that particular rumour about him, lol.
Comments on Broken
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.