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: 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.
Finrod and Bëor stop for a while on the road to Nargothrond to rest. The bodies of the Secondborn often grow weary, and Finrod laments, massaging Bëor's back and renewing his beloved's vigor with the work of his hands. But Finrod has other burdens of his own, Bëor soon discovers, returning…
Maglor without Maedhros, Daeron without Lúthien. Alone, they are nothing, but together, they can be something more. Where do you turn, when you have no one else left?
Written for Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang 2023, featuring artwork by athlai.
It was only the second time Finwë had come out foraging with them, and of course this would happen—of course the Hunter would come, the Dark Rider on his steed with its terrible, heavy footfalls, and the deep-throated laughter that held no mirth, only malice.
“Come on.” Maedhros grabbed his hand and pulled him along down the path, both of them quickening their pace now, until the trees opened up into a wide meadow filled with flowers, bright yellow celandine and dandelions and sweet-scented pale chamomile mingling with cornflowers and irises. On…
Haleth leaves to find her brother, even though her father does not permit her to.
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
On a Different Page
Tolkien wrote more than just Middle-earth, and this challenge takes its prompts from his non-Ardaverse stories, essays, and poems. 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.
For most of my life, when reading Lord of the Rings, I read it through the perspective of Gandalf's words about Éowyn, that she'd spent years trapped as a caregiver, watching the realm she love fall from honor into disgrace.
But what if Éowyn was also a student of history?
…
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Angbang Week 2026
Angbang Week is a tumblr event focusing on the relationship between Morgoth and Sauron, running from May 5-11, 2026
Gondor Week 2026
A Tumblr week event focusing on the history of the realm of Gondor.
Crablor Day
A day dedicated to everyone's favourite warcriminal crustacean - April 26, 2026
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.
There was so much hope in this story for Maglor. I found myself cheering him on and then the sudden shock that he wasn't going to make it, staring me in the face. Yet he took it as if he had been preparing himself for ages for just such an event. Almost as if he wanted to go-staring at that button that reminded him of his father and a past life dead and gone, as he succumbs to his watery grave.
Thank you so much! Maglor is indeed working through his issues here - which is exactly why the Valar can't let him live, since then he'd free himself from the Doom. But yes, what else could all those years wandering the shores have been if not a preparation to die?
Thank you! When Maedhros set out to ambush Morgoth, he had only ever seen him in Valinor, and we all know that Morgoth was on his best behaviour there. And at that point Maedhros knows about death and slaughter, but not yet about the astounding cruely Morgoth is capable of. But that would soon change...
Maglor is very strong, and while writing this I was tempted to have him survive, but ultimately decided against it. There are enough stories where he lives on until modern times, and not enough about his eventual demise. Gosh, that makes me sound so mean!
This feels very true to Celegorm - the restlessness, the hunger for life. Even the callousness and selfishness match Tolkien's portrait of him in Nargothrond and Doriath. I like his reflections at the end; it's fascinating how Luthien's legacy and Feanorian heritage mingle together in Elrond and Elros.
You create some interesting details - the "looping halls" (hard to tell where you are!), the tapestries out of order with time. It gives Mandos an intriguing tinge of otherworldliness.
Thank you! I have some very specific headcanons for Celegorm, and I just threw them together in this little fic. Add a healthy dose of Mandos-magics and general otherworldliness, and here you are. ;)
I've always been interested in the childhood of Elrond and Elros and the consequences of being raised by the House of Fëanor. We all know about Elrond at the end of the Third Age, but I can't imagine everyone just accepted them, when he still rode with Kinslayers.
Comments on Falling 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.