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: Scavenger Hunt In this Matryoshka-with-a-twist, you will solve clues that point you to the challenge prompts.
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.
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…
Erestor lay up against a tree, brown washed to black in the wet of the snow. The black disc of the new moon sailed across the dark sky. Erestor wished it were gone. He had no need to look into dark eyes any longer.
He was dying.
(AKA Erestor unwittingly travels back in time to the…
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.
This is my new poetical attempt to add my own interpretation to Tolkien's Cosmology as to Eru's Creation and the Valar's minds and behind-the-scene providence reasons and mechanisms.. I often review Eä as part of our own world, just in another dimension, this is why I have always seriously…
Expanding on my 2018 article "Why People Don't Comment," comment data from the SWG underscores community as an essential component to a robust commenting culture.
Eventually they arrived, and Echeleb and Dernodhos ushered Anniavas in. Dernodhos found an old thin pallet somewhere and unrolled it on the floor, made him lie down with Limral—who had immediately perked up and started sniffing the air—and went and found them a heavy piece of…
Expanding on my 2018 article "Why People Don't Comment," comment data from the SWG underscores community as an essential component to a robust commenting culture.
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.
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…
Scribbles and Drabbles 2026
Scribbles & Drabbles is a fic and art exchange with a minimum word count of 100 words.
Russingon Week 2026
A Tumblr week event focusing on the relationship between Maedhros and Fingon.
Boromir Week 2026
If you are Boromir girlies/gents/stans/simps, then this event is for you! So, come join us, and bring your fanfiction, art, gifs, moodboards, and headcanons that highlight everything you love about our Captain of Gondor!
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.
Oh, this is a lovely story. I really like the interaction with Aulë and Yavanna, especially these lines:
“We have a fox-cub present today,” Aulë rumbled, his booming laugh filling the large workspace though the nickname was fondly meant when he spoke it. Tinwië stared, keeping a hold on her father’s hair for safety but showing no fear in the face of the Vala who smiled at her.
I have a deep and abiding love for Aulë (I esp. love him in Carving a Door, which you won't have read - I removed it some time ago for rewriting purposes and then it kinda died, but the bit with Aulë interacting with his Dwarrow and with dead Celebrimbor was very good...) and particularly his relationship with his wife. I really should crosspost the rest of my Valar ficlets to SWG... Love for a Child until I do ;)
Oh, do, do crosspost! Not that I am not capable of finding them, but I do love to read things here. It's easier to find a story and to remember it in case I want to re-read. Also, gotta admit, I have spent a lot of time working on trying to make this site grow and be attractive for Silm fans.
It's on my to do list ;) I mostly struggle with defining which of my works fall under silm-fic headings ;)
So far, I feel most comfortable stating an answer such as "anything in Aman or First Age" but then where does that leave my SA fics?? I did post one of those, actually, which means I can then expand silm-fic to mid-SA mentally... but then what about my Last Alliance things - and a few years after?? What about the Early-TA - basically I'm lacking a guide, I think... I mean, I probably wouldn't post the Fourth Age Harad fic on here, but on the other hand it does have a blue wizard and draws lines back to Second Age and ARRGH.
Oh, I definitely think of Second Age fics as Silm fic according to the suggested standards here. Things that exist only in HoMe should fit also, right? There is a reason why the guidelines are pretty open, because it depends upon each writer what they reference in their stories. I have one and one only LotR fic here, but posted it because it is essentially all about an argument among the characters about their interpretations of the essay "Laws and Customs Among the Eldar."
I, of course(!), fill my LotR fics with tons of Silmarillion references much moreso than even Tolkien did, but I don't post them here. I would, personally, draw the line hard at fics based on The Hobbit. I think the site guidelines say that if one is uncertain one should drop a line to the moderator's email. (I am not a mod! So the above is just my opinion!) Generally, the idea is to be inclusive, but to maintain the site as a place for Silmarillion stories where those will not be swamped by the vast number of other Tolkien fanfiction. Around the time it was founded, ff net had tens of thousands of LotR stories and there were dozens of LotR archives and websites and only a paltry couple of thousand Silm fics on ff net and no Silm-only archives.
Good points. I'll have a think about which things to cross post. And how to structure it; on Ao3 I've made several less than 1k ficlets that really could be interlinked parts of a var focused series at least... Or should they be chapters of a story... To ponder when I'm back from this mall event :o thanks for the advice ;)
And Nerdanel is definitely her father's daughter; I have a few other vignettes to type up about these three (and Tindomiel) but right now I'm finishing a memory lane chapter so it will have to wait till tomorrow.
A sad backstory to an intriguing gap in canon—I like what you’ve done with this, and how you’ve shown a single event to shape the course of not only Nerdanel’s life, but her father’s a well.
In my head, Nerdanel is like Fëanor in many ways - she understands him in ways others do not, and part of that I theorise stems from this sort of shared lack of a mother. Nerdanel has her aunt, and genuinely loves her, but she's fully aware that Naica is not her mum, and even if Tindómë's fate is unlike Miriel's, it is still a similar gap in their lives.
Of course, this does leave Mahtan as an easily available vision of what Fëanor's own father could have done, adding to his anger towards Finwë/Indis... Even if the two situations are not the same - and Mahtan has some tiny bit of hope that he will be reunited with his wife that Finwe did not...
Comments on Scattered Stars
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.