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.
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!
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.
Instadrabbling Sessions for April, May, and June
Instadrabbling continues on the first Saturday of each month on our Discord server.
[Writing] How Tolkien Presents Ordinary People in "The Silmarillion" by Dawn Felagund
Inspired by collecting the prompts for the Everyman challenge, this essay considers how ordinary people are subsumed and silenced in The Silmarillion, which begins a three-book arc that ends with the rise of the humble and ordinary.
[Writing] Blessed are the Leave-takers by Isilme_among_the_stars
As prince Curufinwë Fëanáro makes an historical speech from the high court of the King upon Túna, those at the back of the crowd strain to hear.
A silly little scene inspired by Monty Python's "Blessed are the Cheesemakers" scene from The Life of Brian, written for …
[Writing] After the Kinslaying by Deborah Judge
A Teleri fishing boat captain turns to farming on abandoned Noldor lands after her ship is stolen. A Noldor farmer returns with Finarfin to find that his land belongs to the Teleri now.
[Writing] I Sit and Think of Times There Were Before by Erdariel
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.
[Writing] Until the Stars are All Alight by Dagstjarna
Reembodied in Aman, Celebrimbor decides to return to Middle earth to help heal the darkness and hurt wrought by the ring.
[Writing] a riot of shadow and shine by Elrond's Library
These were simply flashes, a hint of a wider, greater world. A tantalizing glimpse of more, always at the edge of awareness, never within reach. Míriel would grasp it, if something as intangible as the concept of color could overflow in bounteous wonder over her hands.
But…
[Writing] The Exchange by Elrond's Library
An exchange is made during the Great Journey
Everyman
Create a fanwork about an ordinary character in the legendarium using a quote about an unnamed character as inspiration. Read more ...
Three Silmarils
Create a fanwork concerning one of the three selected quotes about Fëanor (although your fanwork can be about any character). Read more ...
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.
Grief, Grieving, and Permission to Mourn in the "Quenta Silmarillion" by Dawn Walls-Thumma
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.
Tolkien, Lunatic Physicists, and Abnegation by Cynthia (Cindy) Gates
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.
[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.
Week of Kiliel
A Tumblr event dedicated to the relationship between Kili and Tauriel.
Aspec Arda Week 2026
This week-long event celebrates asexual and aromantic spectrum interpretations and headcanons of Tolkien’s Legendarium.
April/May Teitho Challenge
Teithio is running a prompt challenge around the theme of "heartbreak."
Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang 2026
The Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang is back for another summer of collaboration between artists and writers!
A great tease. I love the concept. Now I want developed story.
Oh! I have to confess I never thought of expanding this one, because of Idhlinn being Elleth's character.
Elleth was gracious enough to say that I had got her right in this short piece, but I don't think I'd be prepared to venture on a longer one--especially as Idhlinn is clearly part of an ongoing WIP.
By the same token, I admit I have a sneaky hope that Elleth might incorporate the concept into her WIP as part of Idhlinn's back-story, because she seemed to like it, too.
I might write more about Adanel at some point, though!
Links to two short pieces of Elleth's about Idhlinn, which you may not have seen:
This is wonderful, a small tale with Adanel in it. It's intriguing to consider that besides Andreth another wise woman was willing to exchange information with th e elves.
Thank you very much, Rhapsody!
I think it would have taken a more personal relationship--such as Andreth had with Finrod--for Adanel to reveal that some of her ancestors had worshipped Melkor, but that doesn't mean she wouldn't have been willing to share other kinds of information freely!
And I'm sure she had other interesting things to teach.
And, once again, thank you so much for this ficlet. I'm still all asquee over it! :D Idhlinn *is* part of an ongoing WiP (and goodness knows when I get that written given my usual plethora of ongoing WiPs), but then she is a staple in most Fëanorian fic I write, as well. And your sneaky hope might just turn out to be true, because this should definitely be written in long form at some point. :)
I'm very much looking forward to reading more about Idhlinn--whether or not her encounter with Adanel becomes part of her back-story!
Thank you very much again!
Hmm, I loved Adanel's tales very much, and I had some pity for my own *kind*, so I decided long ago, there should be SOME men, human, whatever, not being forged or fouled by Morgoth, and led by the Maia Tom Bombadil and his friends, the Ents, to a land far away, later to be known as *The Shire*.
This would explain the Ents, still seen to the times of Sam Gamgees cousin, the suggestion of Treebeard, the hobbits may look after Ent WOMEN, the fact, this area was well cultivated, for example.
And it would offer the possibility, there were at least some men, not under the doom of Morgoth, with the choice of leaving the circles of the world, if they like to, which would make it a real gift, and no doom.
I appriciate this idea, and it is no real anticanon, in my opinion.
My abilities as author are somewhat poor, and even, if not, I would not dare to write this in English, so maybe this could be called a challenge?
Yes, you see, I want to see the human race in a level headed position, somehow.
But I always tried to explain ( especially to myself), why mortal kind of death should be a gift...
There are some kinds of dialogues, I placed between Maglor (reborn in somehow orkish form) and a descendent of those unmarred men and an elf, which deals with this theory, but I never could make a real story of all this fragments.
I always kept on writing extreme Mary Sues, and never will improve, I fear...
But I like reading, and, yes, to this, I read all your fanfics, and will continue, I promise...
Lia Sullhach
Those are very interesting ideas, but I'm afraid I couldn't write them.
Maybe they will come together as a fic for you one day?
Meanwhile, thank you for reading! And thank you for your comments!
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