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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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…
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.
As always, I have been totally absorbed reading this- as absorbed as Meadhros, almost moving weith him, nodding ehre and there as he got it roght. I loved the note he made of the sea linking him and Maglor, and that his listening is what got it right. And he was not humiliated.
*extremely short review* I absolutely love this. The dynamic between Maedhros and Fingon (and Maedhros' dependence on Fingon especially) and Maedhros' characterization are both lovely. The last line about Maglor's wife is especially touching, and the connection between him and Maglor is beautifully written. I want to point out specific lines I love, but I've got to go study, so I'll just say that this is a very beautiful story and (I know I said this before but) I love this!
"He had seen the Great Sea as something that separated them completely, before, but tonight the thought that he and Maglor might both be listening to the sound of the waves together at the same time, although continents apart, seemed to bring a kind of comfort..."
See, now you've got me imagining that Maglor starts playing his harp across the water and he an Madhros go in for a rousing rendition of "Somewhere out there" XD
I'm not sure I could think of anything that could remotely amend the damage and rift between their respective peoples. But what's lovely is that it seems Olwe, Earwen and Cirdan and some of the Teleri are willing to forgive anyway, to move on, just on the thought alone that Maedhros would wish to make some reparation.
I really loved how Fingon took one look at him, saw he was a little distressed and knew what he needed. A little grounding. I love to see them this way. That they are so connected, know each other at a soul level. Its so beautiful.
This one had slipped from my mind, but as soon as the boatyard was mentioned I felt a warm sense of delight as I remembered how beautifully written it was, and how comforting.
My heart is so full for your Círdan here: kind, insightful, down-to-earth, honest. Patient.
I laughed at "A very unhappy goose with severe stomach ache."
And feel so much empathy for Maedhros' regret and desire to make good, and his uncertainty.
"Humiliation he could do in spades." Ai, poor lad!
"Fingon, studying his face, not the timber and tools scattered about him, said: 'I see.'" Is it possible for me to love your Fingon more?
And Círdan, noticing and stopping him when his emotions will get in the way, then quietly just showing him. He feels like a compassionate father-figure that was missing from Maedhros' life.
I totally love how he starts to hear the sea after that, as he accepts his feelings that he associated with it, and how for the first time he feels it connecting, not separating, him with his brother.
(I'm curious as to why his brothers (I'm assuming specifically Maglorand Curufin) "could not possibly be here"; is it that they would not be accepted by the Teleri at this point, or merely physical impossibilities, or something else?)
And as if its not enough to feel warm fuzzies spotting Elrond in the crowd, Maglor’s wife playing her flute...
Comments on A Minor Act of Reparation
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.