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.
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.
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.
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.
These were simply flashes, a hint of a wider, greater world. A tantalizing glimpse of more, always at the edge of awareness, never within reach. Míriel would grasp it, if something as intangible as the concept of color could overflow in bounteous wonder over her hands.
But…
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
Utopia/Dystopia
To reflect both the idealistic beginnings and the dark endings that are so frequent in the Legendarium, we invite you to create a fanwork inspired by utopian or dystopian prompts from novels, songs, artworks, or films. 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.
*wipes the tears from laughter from her eyes* Uli, you wrote a fabulous story given the challenge request. I just love how you wrote these two characters, especially Saeros just sounds so like him (impatient and loooves an audience) and ai poor Mablung, just getting distracted all along by a goat. *snicker* poor guys, hehehe.
This is great. So funny and still erotic. I am an absolute fan of good dialogue and you handled it beautifully here. (I've been trying to resist saying I would love to have been one of those goats, but that sounds so nasty, yet, when have I ever been discreet. It's all fantasy writing afterall.)
Well they may have been more worth watching if the goats had hidden a bit better ;)
Thank you for the compliments, it was, once i started it, a suprisingly easy fic to write but it took me weeks and weeks of agonising to find the angle. Funny how a lot of my later stuff leans heavyish on dialougue which i normally find is soemwhat of a struggle :)
All right, the names of Mablung and Saeros drew my attention immediately, and after a long debate with myself: to read or not to read, given the 'slash' warning, I decided to give the story a go, and I can admit I'm very glad I did.
It's funny, wonderfully written, very enjoyable, and shines with such wit I wish I could pour into my own writing. :)
Thank you for reading it despite it being slash. I know it isn't usually your kind of thing
Also I am very glad that, deciding to try it, you enjoyed it :) It means I must have done somethign right. It was, I must admit fun to write too, partly because of the outragousness of the whole idea.
Thank you for the review. This fic terrified me writing it. Humour does not come easy and I was honestly afraid it would fall as flat as the proverbial pancake!
Thank you I am so glad you found it funny. Funny was hard work. If I remember right Mablung was meant to be paranoid until I actually wrote that last bit... lol then the goat just took over.
Comments on Something to chew on.
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.