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.
Feanor and Fingolfin, from their youth to their fall.
"I will do this gladly," Fingolfin said, whispering into Feanor's mouth, grasping for reasons and sense. "Gladly, if it will bring peace between us. If it will end the madness."
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.
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.
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.
Reembodied in Aman, Celebrimbor decides to return to Middle earth to help heal the darkness and hurt wrought by the ring.
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
Soundtrack
While usually the scenes are filmed first and the soundtrack is composed later, this month we want to challenge you to create (or continue) a story after listening to one of our musical prompts. The prompts will be pieces of classical and instrumental music. 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.
Thank you I am glad you enjoyed it. I wanted to write something sweet pregnancy related but..well then Miriel took over and even the foreshadowing of Feanor tends to destroy sweetness and fluffyness :) I enjoyed writing it though and am glad you enjoyed reading. Thanks for the fb
What a great ficlet Uli! You created a beautiful portrait here of Miriel and to see this sliver of her motivations is a treat. I just can see her sitting there as the High Queen of the Noldor under Laurelin, consciously aiming to give her unborn son all the qualities he will need to be a good and strong leader, a beacon for those who will follow them. This also shows the ambitious side of Miriel (I really like that) and what she wants for her kid, but also setting things in motion that will become her own undoing. It’s obvious to me where Fëanor got his pride (but then they do claim that sons take after their mother in character...)!
Thank you! And good heavens yes, someone had to have been ambitious and why not Miriel, she was the one that seems to have put toomuch energy into creating her perfect son after all :) I am glad you enjoyed this and thank you for the lovely feedback
I may be reading too much into this, but I liked the sentence structure you used here... long and elaborate, and still rather simple... it makes Míriel's voice very strong and still conveys that "primitive innocence" of the Eldar that Tolkien valued so much. With Míriel's foreknowledge of her son, I wonder if she is aware just how much life will change, especially for herself...
"Their children will be less than mine, I do not carry a night-time child but one of fire[...]." - absolutely wonderful. I think this is the strongest line in the story - it implies so much we know about the Spirit of Fire, and very much reminds me of your poems. I wish I could say more right now, but that would require a very thorough interpretation of the story (and that would include many of my ramblings) - it is so packed with motives - the half-finished gown, the fire symbolism, the colors, Laurelin itself, autumn - without being overdone or clichéd (an easy trap to fall into when writing about the Feanorians!) that I probably will come back and read it again and again (this was, I think, the fourth or fifth time I came back) and still find something new. There is a whole world just beneath the surface of your words, and as an archaeologist in training (and a student of literature!) I can't wait to excavate it!
Truly magnificent and impressive. Thank you for writing this.
I write drabbles and double drabbles much the same way as I write poetry so I am not that suprised if there are resemblances between the two. I just really enjoy writing them and playing with getting the right lanagauge that I want and a sentance structure that 'flows'.
This feedback makes me smile every time i iread it so once again thank you
You described so well the concept of the prophetic "mother names" of elves in the line: "...their children will be less than mine, I do not carry a night-time child but one of fire, of passions such as our people has never seen."
Miriel is a big "what if" for me--how different things would have turned out if she had not decided to "die". Thanks for this piece about her.
Apologies for the extremely late reply to your wonderful feedback.
The whole thing of mother names being prophetic intrigued me and Miriel always have, chosing to pass from the world. Silmarillion would have been very different had she made a different choice
Comments on Expecting.
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.