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.
The end gave it so much extra context... doing that awful task and all the time afraid she would never be able to go back to the life she loved because of who she had married. A small piece that made a strong impression on me.
I think being alone, while she was doing it, would make those fears stronger.
On the other hand, her being away on her task would give the Teleri closest to her, who may have been sending rather mixed signals in the first shock after the event, time to work out that they really didn't want to lose her over this.
Ouch! Painful to read and so well done. I often wonder what Maglor and Curufin's wives suffered after they left. The idea (which I also follow in my personal story canon) that Maglor's wife was of the Teleri adds an entire additional point of pain for her. I can also relate on a highly personal level.
Thank you very much, Oshun! I'm glad the story is relatable. Not glad that it gives you pain!
People write more about Nerdanel's sufferings, usually. We know a bit more about what was there for Nerdanel to fall back on than for her daughters-in-law: her father Mahtan, her friendship with Indis, her art.
The Telerin connection goes back to Dawn's Felak-verse, in my case as in yours, I guess, although this isn't (and never was) Vingarie.
This is how far I follow you, Makalaure. My heart! So glad that the Teleri appreciated her work, rather than casting her out for who her husband was. That was a huge relief after the sadness of the tale.
I completely agree that Elves would require some kind of funeral - aside from the graves you mentioned, there's also the Hill of the Slain after the Nirnaeth, and the fact that Feanor burns up and has "neither burial nor tomb" is explicitly mentioned as a strange thing, so it can hardly be Elven nature to not leave a body. :/ Thank you for this story! It was sad but satisfying, and answering a question that isn't often asked: Who takes care of the bodies?
Because I'd already written about her after the War of Wrath, I knew she would come out okay at the end. Or rather okay-ish...
It is sometimes overlooked just how many of the Feanorians and other Noldor already die by this point, because of course people are thinking first of all of the dead Teleri. And I thought, somebody will have had to deal with all those dead people.
I was quite surprised when I first encountered that idea about elves not needing graves! I forget what bits of canon were cited, but I felt the underlying inspiration was probably movie-verse, because PJ's elves do look a bit as if they might not need them. I haven't seen it about recently, but mentioned it as the plot depends so much on that work being required.
Yes, she does. She is there through all the trials and tribulations, all the loss and grief as well as some good times. My hc from her prospective, shows the slow slide of her husband and their life together, from passionate, loving and protective husband and father to a possessive, cold and calculating stranger and how this impacts on her and Celebrimbor. Her story doesn't end in Beleriand either, but I better not give away too much just in case you feel like reading it in future.
I'd love to read the story of how Maglor's wife came to learn of the Noldolante and the little glimpses of your version of Curufin's wife too, if you wouldn't mind.
I see! I've always been interested in other people's story lines where one or the other of these wives goes along to Middle-earth, even though in my 'verse that doesn't happen. For Curufin's wife, it would be even more heart-wrenching than for Maglor's or Caranthir's. I will keep an eye out for this. I think you haven't posted it anywhere yet, have you, although maybe you have and I failed to spot it?
Here is Maglor's wife and her encounter with the Noldolante:
Oh, this is wonderful. I'd never thought about all the Noldorin bodies needing burial… but here it is. The pain and her very personal fear of rejection; it's an excellent fic!
Comments on Graveyard Shift
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.