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!
Character of the Month: Marach There are few details in the texts about Marach, but he is noteworthy for his allegiances and his descendants, who would become pivotal to the history of Middle-earth and the eventual defeat of Morgoth and Sauron.
New Challenge: Allusive Literature and art constantly refer back to each other using allusions, and this month's prompts are inspired by allusions to literature, myth, art, and history.
New Challenge: Building Middle-earth Let global architecture be your inspiration in this challenge, where you will work with a prompts that are architectural styles, locations in Arda, or both.
Rescued from a brutal Angband hunt, an ex-thrall with a strange and powerful artifact embedded in his spine is brought to Himring, for it is one of the only places in Beleriand which welcomes such folk. Though he has no memories of his life before, Anniavas slowly becomes accustomed to his new…
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…
Of course, she knew that in the Blessed Land, true harm was unlikely to come to him. The Valar watched over them all, and the lesser spirits were everywhere. It was a great hound of Oromë who had found him happily splashing in the creek, in fact. But anyone could drown in mere…
Across three surveys and ten years, the Tolkien Fanfiction Survey has document when authors began writing. These data reveal trends in how film promotions, the films themselves, the books, and other historical contexts have influenced not only who writes but how long they stay.
Current Challenge
Allusive
Choose from our list of allusions to history, literature, mythology, and art to create a fanwork. Read more ...
Across three surveys and ten years, the Tolkien Fanfiction Survey has document when authors began writing. These data reveal trends in how film promotions, the films themselves, the books, and other historical contexts have influenced not only who writes but how long they stay.
There are few details in the texts about Marach, but he is noteworthy for his allegiances and his descendants, who would become pivotal to the history of Middle-earth and the eventual defeat of Morgoth and Sauron.
A dissenting voice in Marach's alliance with the Elves of Beleriand, Amlach experiences a change of mind after a mysterious twist in the story reorients his priorities toward enmity with Morgoth.
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…
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LotR Week 2026
A week-long event for The Lord of the Rings
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.