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
Things We Never Said
In this AU challenge, fix that moment that you always wanted to see handled differently by offering your beloved character that moment of forgiveness or redemption. 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.
Awwww ... okay, they may be in the terrible twos, but I can never resist wee!Ambarussa. You have such a gift for voice in your stories; the tanner comes through perfectly here. Is this going to continue? I know, I know, just what you probably want and need: another work in progress! But I'd be intrigued to read more. :)
Thank you so much. I am tickled pink that you liked it. I was worried when I had finished that the little devils ought to have been complaining about the smell. (I think tanneries smell bad or maybe I am mixing that up with a glue factory and a tannery side-by-side on the outskirts of the little town on the Ohio River where my mother grew up.) I almost continued the scene to include that element but it seemed like it would ruin the symmetry so I decided I wouldn't worry. (Or maybe those clever Noldor would have figured out a way around that problem.) It definitely was a one-shot, although if I had had months to work on the Seven in ’07 I might have been inspired to do a whole series of ficlets of the impressions of different townspeople of Formenos (as you imagined it in AMC) had of their most famous summer residents. So I won’t rule out continuing it.
(Believe it or not. it was inspired in part by your chapter of the visit to the healer in Formenos with Feanor, Fingon, Celegorm and Maglor. I know they appear on the surface to have nothing in common at all, but made me wonder how it would have been written from her POV which you communicated remarkably well in the POV of Celegorm.)
I agree with your opinion that the 'ordinary' people of Formenos would be interested in what was going on in Feanor's family as much as modern people are interested in the comings and goings of royal families today. :) Lovely tale. Thank you very much for sharing.
I cannot believe I never responded to this comment! I am so sorry, I try to always respond. Someone wrote me an email about this story today and said they didn't remembered if they had reviewed it before or not, so I came here to look. Thank you so much. I am so happy that you enjoyed it.
Thank you so much! I had a lot of fun with this one, imagining the little imps, Maedhros trying to be helpful, Nedanel a little harried, and the voice of the tanner bragging about his encounter with the local celebrities (almost canon!).
When I read your comment on Gold-Seven's image, I wondered whether you'd ever written about Maedhros and the twins and found that you had! I think I had missed this story before, somehow. What a nice glimpse of the family! And it sort of goes with your more recent story of Finno helping with the harvest.
I definitely think that they were constantly gossiped-about and, in my interpretation of them, spending part of their time in Formenos before the exile period means they would have had a following there as home-town celebrities. Dawn Felagund had the idea years before me that it is likely that it was one of their bases support, since a significant minority of hardcore Feanor supporters endured through the Flight of the Noldor and for centuries afterwards in Middle-earth.
Thanks so much for reading! I like bad little toddlers--they make me laugh. And, yes, they do drive me crazy also!
Comments on Two for Trouble
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.