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.
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.
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.
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 ...
Random Challenge
Terrible Twos
In honor of our second birthday, we asked for fanworks about the second year of a character's life. 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.
This was lovely. I enjoyed so much about this: The scenery, their easy conversation in spite of everything that happened, Elrond's protective behaviour (and Maglor's occasional reassurance that he can look after himself), Maglor's musing about the fate of Men, the peace between them... and the idea that Elrond will drop by every now and then, and that Maglor wrote the Noldolantë especially for him. That's such a beautiful and reconciliatory image!
Oh, thank you! I felt that although Maglor does not go among Elves again, he must have talked to someone about the events at the end of the War of Wrath so they went into the official history - Elrond seemed the likeliest candidate. But I loved writing them just chatting together too.
I love this story. You had me with the character list. I love Elrond and Maglor stories. And I have an absolute passion for any speculation about the Noldolantë.
I'm so glad you enjoyed it! It's a heartbreaking situation for both of them really, isn't it? Maglor's lost everything, Elrond presumably has a pile of duties and responsibilities but not so many personal connections. Not sure if he has met Celebrian yet, since they don't marry till the Third Age, probably not...
Oh, this was beautiful! I love the dialogue between them. It feels so natural, as though those 400 years did not exist, and they have been continuously one united family. I love the touches of humor too.
I really didn't see the ending coming! I probably should have--I've written my own Noldolante origin stories--but it surprised and delighted me to see the story take that turn and to know that the survival of this great song of Maglor's was due to the intercession of Elrond. The idea that the Elven stories and songs would have represented only a particular point of view--and that the Feanorian point of view would have been largely untold--is important to my own work, and I loved seeing how you represented it here.
I'm glad you liked it! I think that when you have people who are friends and have a lot in common like this, they can come back together after a long break and still have that comfortable ability to fit in together and just talk. And they both have things they need to tell someone about!
Comments on And the wind as sweet as honey in the mouth
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.