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.
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.
The thing about forgiveness, he thought, was that it was so much easier when the object of it was far away—or dead. It was so much easier to let it all go when those responsible were far away and unable to do any more harm.
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.
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.
But…
Current Challenge
Everyman
Create a fanwork about an ordinary character in the legendarium using a quote about an unnamed character as inspiration. Read more ...
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.
Thanksi, Himring! Glad you liked it! Folks like the Big Three of Imladris, Celeborn & Galadriel, and especially Cirdan have seen (and heard) it all, I guess :)
And there we have it. Ten excellent vignettes to read on a quiet, rainy afternoon in Boston. I thoroughly enjoyed each and every one of these, maeglin, in particular An Ally of Lightning (outstanding description of Tulkas' force, like a nuclear blast without the radiation), Not So Like Lúthien After All (a grim reality here - that in essence, Arwen will take her own life), and finally, Nameless, Named (OMG! I loved this! Rockbiter! Just perfect).
I often find that reading good fan fiction is an effective means for me to jumpstart the Dark Muse (poor fellah - I have enslaved him for months serving the powerful regulatory overlords of Pharma-dûr), and I honed right in on your series of ficlets. I'm glad I did.
Aw, thanks Pandie! Such praise - I'm blushing :). Yup, I've always thought that that's what Arwen's choice meant. Elves who love mortals always seem to die when the mortal does -- in Aegnor's case, even if they don't marry. And hmm, I guess one could think of Tulkas' blast in those terms -- glad the imagery meant something to you. And I'm really happy you liked Rockbiter! Never thought I'd work a Neverending Story reference into a Tolkien fanfic, but there it is. Or even thinking about it more canonically, Gandalf says the Nameless Things are older than Sauron, which is ... pretty damn old, and must make them strange beings indeed! Anyway, I'm glad you liked these stories :).
I'm delighted you told these stories! I stumbled in here looking for fics featuring Cirdan as a major character, and was treated to a whole treasure trove.
I enjoyed a pleasant hour or so reading through all of these.
Pedantry gave me a chuckle, as did Elros' pedantic insistence on not being half-elven.
Ahh, but Arvedui's ill-fated estel breaks my heart.
I love the image of a hasty Gandalf throwing a name over his shoulder as he chases the balrog. (And that Rockbiter could have so willingly squished the balrog too!)
And the true cost of fighting a war involving the Powers was vividly described—I do imagine Tulkas as rather like a bull in a china shop on a very large scale.
I love your solution for the origin of Rog's name - and his delightfully cocky attitude is so fitting for one of the unbegotten, and it warms my heart that he is friends with Beleg.
The happy AU of Andreth and Aegnor and their children was lovely to slip into. (Well, happyish, this is the Silm after all and Fate has a nasty sense of humour in it.)
And I'm with Finwë wondering whether he had been right to bring his people West... although of course I have the benefit of hindsight. Or foresight? Or readersight? Whatever it is.
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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.