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.
The fate of lovers has been sealed. After Aegnor pledges his love to Andreth, he seeks out council one last time from his wiser and more grounded eldest brother. However, his hopes that Finrod would join him in this newfound happiness are quickly dashed and it does not go well between the…
After the fall of Dorthonion, Edhellos (originally named in Quenya Eldalote), Angrod's wife, has chosen to move to Barad Nimras, the tower that Finrod built in the Falas on a headland west of Eglarest.
A series of half-drabbles using the one word prompts for the March/April 2025 Birthday Bash Challenge, looking at the perception of time through the eyes of Maiar (in general), Maedhros (specifically), and Aragorn and Arwen (specifically).
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…
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.
This is very tender and beautiful. In it, you say everything there is to say. I wish you would write a longer Findekamo/Maitimo- a sequel to AMC where they start to realise what there is between them. My dream come true that would be.
I don't quite know how you do this- make such a short scene so utterly complete. So much in this; the refusal to allow them to make Feanor a martyr (and it never occured to me before that they would try! Curufinwe's hands- that focus on their grime, their depserate scrbbling to save dust, is terribly poignant- and the heavy heavy irony of Maitimo (still) is so weighted. Brilliant.
This creates a wonderful image of darkness and a voice speaking out of it- the Odon myth is really interesting here. (and of course, the Christ myth too) An ordeal that yields gifts, not only th story but the voice too. I like the idea that Pengolodh is outside the lamplight.
Oh, this is a grim and sorrowful tale- but I think it is how Tolkien saw things too. Maedhros is the most tragic of all his characters I think and then slow grinding of his spirit the worse thing Tolkien inflivts upon him. Fingon's death seems to finish him and only the Oath keeps him alove.
This reminds me of the scene in AMC where he sees the squirrel and is distratced by its distress - I like the analogy of the trees -the oaks taking u more than their share of the sky, like their father, and the willows that bow with supple grace.
Great sense of the storm in this- the sea, senses, feeling overwhlemed and in terrible danger. I think back to him as he was in ANC- I have never bothered to find out anything about him before but just looked him up -power of your writing, Dawn.
There is a terrible bitterness and fury and grief in this one line:Curufinwë—hands ash-grimed from trying to gather their father into a box.
And of course the irony, although I am sure he knew this only too well when he choose to go and sortie with Morgoth, that maitimo went too - his choice, his price, his loss. He was willing to pay.
Comments on They Went in Haste
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.