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: Stars Create a fanwork using star-themed prompts presented in a bingo board format.
Cultus Dispatches: Trends in Fandom Entry Year The films inspired a lot of fanfiction, yes, but exactly how fanfiction authors interacted with them predicts who remains in the fandom for long durations.
Character of the Month: Marach There are few details in the texts about Marach, but he is noteworthy for his allegiances and his descendants, who would become pivotal to the history of Middle-earth and the eventual defeat of Morgoth and Sauron.
Rescued from a brutal Angband hunt, an ex-thrall with a strange and powerful artifact embedded in his spine is brought to Himring, for it is one of the only places in Beleriand which welcomes such folk. Though he has no memories of his life before, Anniavas slowly becomes accustomed to his new…
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.
The impossible happened: a Silmaril has been stolen from Morgoth’s crown. Maedhros decides to reunite the People of Beleriand against the Enemy and attack him while he is still unprepared, which is by no means less impossible. Meanwhile, in the hidden city of Gondolin, Lord Glorfindel of the…
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…
Stars
Construct a fanwork using star-themed prompts in a bingo card format. Read more ...
Random Challenge
Title Track
Create a fanwork using our collection of 125 titles from Tolkien's books, chapters, essays, poems, and fragments as inspiration. Read more ...
Across three surveys and ten years, the Tolkien Fanfiction Survey has document when authors began writing. These data reveal trends in how film promotions, the films themselves, the books, and other historical contexts have influenced not only who writes but how long they stay.
There are few details in the texts about Marach, but he is noteworthy for his allegiances and his descendants, who would become pivotal to the history of Middle-earth and the eventual defeat of Morgoth and Sauron.
A dissenting voice in Marach's alliance with the Elves of Beleriand, Amlach experiences a change of mind after a mysterious twist in the story reorients his priorities toward enmity with Morgoth.
Thirteen years before the War of the Ring, an orcling — more intelligent and more curious than most — is born in Mordor. His curiosity will lead him to both incredible discoveries and perilous situations, all of which will shape him into a leader unlike any Mordor has ever known. But to become…
Erestor finds himself thrust into adventure when Elrond requests his company escorting Arwen to Minas Tirith after the War of the Ring is won. All too aware of the chronic illness that has bound his friend to Rivendell for the past several centuries, Glorfindel has some concerns. Erestor, aware…
Tolkien Sapphic September
Tolkien Sapphic September is a month long event focusing on Sapphic relationships and characters in Tolkien and adjacent materials.
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.
Lovely poem! I can imagine this as a part of a Numenorean history.
(Completely spurious question: how did you get the format to work? I can't seem to get even simple line-spacing right, even with HTML, and as for indentation *shudders*. I'm curious as to how you've managed to fix the formatting, and completely in awe of your skils!)
Thank you, Wavesinger! I'm glad you liked it! About the formatting, this is the only archive where I didn't do anything more than copy-paste from Word--no skill involved. Everywhere else I posted I either fiddled with it until I gave up, or just ... gave up without fiddling!
This is fantastic, DW! I can "hear" the Middle-earth equivalent of a skäld reciting these verses, and the entirety of the poem is very immersive, eliciting that frisson when you feel like you've entered another time and place, e.g., in a smoky hall of the Men of Westernesse in the Angle, for example, during their waning years in the Third Age. Hence, very Tolkienian!
Thank you, Pandë! I'm so glad it works--that was exactly my intention! In my framework of "Sam's Book of Tales", he collected it either in Rohan, as a tale brought south, and handed down, or in some little village he passed through during his travels.
It certainly did not appear the way the bards of old are said to have composed, extemporaneously, but little by little, a couple words at a time over several months. So that part was not very Tolkien-like, as he seems to have been much more like those old bards in his abilities! I'm thinking of his "The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorthelm's Son" (for example), the short play in alliterative verse, which he apparently just dashed off!
This came out wonderfully well. I'm not familiar with this poetic format but it looks and sounds great, and that could not have been an easy task to accomplish. I'm a sucker for dragon stories and I could picture this ancient dragon collecting and guarding her treasure over time too vast to comprehend, then having to start all over again. I especially like the last line that she might still be out there somewhere sleeping on her hoard, ready to rise again to protect it.
Thanks so much! You are right, I found this difficult and time-consuming. Although I am fairly pleased with the result (except I wish it were longer!), I think I'll stick with prose, and maybe a little rhyming verse.
I have wanted to add a dragon story for the longest time (I love dragons too, as you know), and this style seemed perfectly apt for one. Also, I didn't want to make her an out-and-out villain, but for her to maaaaybe still be hibernating with her treasure in some remote snowy mountain.
Comments on Dragon's Journeys
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.