New Challenge: Gates of Summer
Choose a summer-related prompt or prompts from a collection of quotes and events from Tolkien's canon and his life.
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: Gates of Summer
Choose a summer-related prompt or prompts from a collection of quotes and events from Tolkien's canon and his life.
Mereth Aderthad Interview: Interview with Varda delle Stelle by Shadow
Varda delle Stelle is the featured artist for cloudyhymn's Mereth Aderthad 2025 presentation "The Design of Dragons and the Doom of the Dwarves." Shadow spoke with Varda about her own connections to the earth and concepts in cloudyhymn's presentation, her creative process, and her hopes for her Mereth Aderthad paintings.
Mereth Aderthad Interview: Interview with Kai by Shadow
Kai is the featured artist for Maglor's Mereth Aderthad 2025 presentation, "Gil-galad was an Elven King: Kingship and Personhood in the last High King of the Noldor." Shadow spoke with Kai about his wide range of interests and inspirations in the legendarium and why Maglor's presentation so intrigued him that he finished the art for it the first night.
Mereth Aderthad Interview: Interview with Reese by Dawn
Reese is the featured author for polutropos's presentation "'Kidnap Fam' and the Living Legendarium" at Mereth Aderthad 2025. Dawn spoke with reese about the silences storytellers leave, mythology, and the appeal of alternate universe fanfiction.
[Writing] She Hath My Love (Drabbles about Women) by Elrond's Library
A collection of drabbles about women in Tolkien's Legendarium.
[Writing] High in the Clean Blue Air by StarSpray
They passed out of Lhûn and the wider coastline of Middle-earth opened up before his eyes. He had wandered those shores for centuries, and even now he felt the pull of that same wanderlust, and knew he would miss them for the rest of his life. Their wildness, the untamed waves, the rocky…
[Writing] Star in the Darkness by StarSpray
Now a great crowd of spirits, both Elves and lingering Men, were gathered before the newest tapestry as it fell open down the wall, luminous, gold and silver threads glittering in the pale light of Mandos.
[Writing] Banked Fires Blaze by Chestnut_pod
What is it to be made for a kinder world?
[Reference] So You Want to Present at a Tolkien Conference? Giving the Presentation by SWG Newsletter Staff
Video and materials from our session on how to give a presentation at a Tolkien conference. The session covers how to practice, plan, and prepare for the presentation; what to expect on the day of the presentation; tips for participating in the Q&A; and how to plan ahead for common worries…
[Reference] Interview with fish by Shadow by fish, daughterofshadows
Fish is the featured artist for Stella's Mereth Aderthad 2025 presentation "Cherished antagonist, despised protagonist - a defence of Elu Thingol." Shadow spoke with fish about his creative process, the importance of both tragedy and eucatastrophe to Tolkien's works, and the appeal of "greyness…
[Writing] Set in Stone by silmalope
An artisan can never forget what she has made, for a part of her soul goes into the making. (Nerdanel character study/ficlet in six parts.)
April's Fool
Create a fanwork in which a character tricks or plays a prank on another. Read more ...
So You Want to Present at a Tolkien Conference? Giving the Presentation by SWG Newsletter Staff
Video and materials from our session on how to give a presentation at a Tolkien conference. The session covers how to practice, plan, and prepare for the presentation; what to expect on the day of the presentation; tips for participating in the Q&A; and how to plan ahead for common worries and mishaps.
Interview with fish by Shadow by fish, daughterofshadows
Fish is the featured artist for Stella's Mereth Aderthad 2025 presentation "Cherished antagonist, despised protagonist - a defence of Elu Thingol." Shadow spoke with fish about his creative process, the importance of both tragedy and eucatastrophe to Tolkien's works, and the appeal of "greyness" in Silmarillion characters like Elu Thingol.
Interview with Varda delle Stelle by Shadow by Varda delle Stelle, daughterofshadows
As the featured artist for cloudyhymn's Mereth Aderthad 2025 presentation "The Design of Dragons and the Doom of the Dwarves," Varda delle Stelle describes her idea for this presentation as springing fully formed as Athena from Zeus's head. Varda chatted with Shadow about what drew her to this presentation, her approach to painting, and her hopes for her Mereth Aderthad work.
Part of our Themed Collection series for our newsletter, this collection features fiction, artwork, and essays that transcend the idea of Orcs as the enemy, instead considering their humanity.
Alliterative Verse for Arda by Rhunedhel
Part of our Themed Collection series for our newsletter, this collection features alliterative poems about Middle-earth.
[Writing] Remembrance by StarSpray
They found Elrond’s sons with Legolas and Gimli, and with Éomer King and Lady Éowyn, standing before an enormous fresco of a charging army of horsemen. “Why, isn’t that what just happened, the way it was told to us?” Sam exclaimed, looking up at it.
“No! This is a painting of the Battle…
[Artwork] Floating through the Forest River by Varda delle Stelle
Bilbo and Thorin's Company are arriving to Lake Town floating through the Forest River with the barrels
[Writing] The Wondrous Tale of the Bee-wolf by bunn
Once upon a time, JRR Tolkien wrote a fairy-tale retelling, an attempt to reconstruct an alternative version of the ancient poem called Beowulf, and he called it Sellic Spell: 'strange tale' or 'wondrous tale'.
Once upon a time, on the long road home from the Lonely…
Teitho June/July Challenge: Inheritance
The theme for the June/July Teitho challenge is "inheritance."
Kidnap Fam Survey
Polutropos is collecting survey data as part of her research on the "Living Legendarium", i.e., how the legends of Arda, from their earliest drafts by Tolkien to the posthumously published Silmarillion edited by Christopher Tolkien to the creative engagements by fans, are inherently indeterminate and mutable, inviting many and diverse interpretations.
Tolkien Native Language Appreciation Fest 2025
This Tumblr event aims to celebrate the diversity in the Tolkien fandom by giving all creators a chance to use their creativity to explore and experiment with all languages.
Russingon Week 2025
Russingon Week is a Tumblr and AO3 event for fanworks that center a romantic or queerplatonic relationship between Maedhros and Fingon.
Tolkien South Asian Week
Tolkien South Asian Week is a fandom-wide event on Tumblr to celebrate South Asian peoples, cultures, and lives through Tolkien’s Legendarium.
This is such a chilling read, especially since it is narrated from such a calculated mind who takes yet another step into darkness. I think you picture the minds and vast belief of teh Numenoreans themselves, the folly - according to Sauron - in believing a deity and how he so cunningly uses such faith for his own means. This makes religion so dangerous when it falls into the wrong hands and at the same time you bring out the weakness of such a belief system. What an awesome build up, from the calmth in the morning to a scene that ends at its peak, just wow!
Thanks for the compliments, Rhapsy. If you found this chilling, then I have done my job. And yes, there might just be some thinly veiled commentary on belief systems* and the false gods contained therein. JRRT's writings in the Akallabêth certainly address this. I'm also riffing on JRRT's comments interspersed through The Silmarillion, The HoMe and Letters about Sauron's repentance and slow descent back into darkness. The sacrifices on Númenor seem to me to be a point of no return, and although (my interpretation of) Sauron retains his conscience, his overarching ambition and desire for revenge squelch those warnings time and time again.
*Still need to read James Carse's latest which is languishing on my bookshelf.
That is a marvelously imaginative and beautifully-written story. The atmosphere is perfect and the entire piece is so stunningly visual. I adore strong visual images in a story and this one is packed with them. As I said before, in a comment on a draft of this, the preparations for the sacrifice with the kohl-lined eyes and the description of his outfit reminded me of ancient Egypt, while the sacrifice elements sounded very Aztec to me.
There were so many concepts that I appreciated that I cannot begin to list them all. I was particularly struck by the fact that he is still experiencing guilt and pangs of conscience, that even for Sauron there could have been a point of no turning back, which implies that prior to that it still might have been possible. I wickedly enjoyed his snarky in his observations about his dupes (they really did deserve his disdain).
This is another fascinating and riveting story, filled with incredible, carefully considered small details. The vision it presents of what it might have been like is compelling for me.
Thanks so much, oshun! I'm glad this appealed to you, dark matter and all. Sometimes I worry that I get too focused on the visual. In one of JRRT's letters (really, you should read them), he writes about apparel in M-e. He describes the Númenóreans as archaic and sort of "Egyptian" so that image was in my head. Plus I love conflating other ancient mythologies with Tolkien's mythopoeia. I really should have found a way to add "Xipe Totec" to the sacrificial images and words that pour into his head just before Zigûr takes that final step.
On the point of no return, this passage from the Akallabêth stood out for me in my later day readings of The Silmarillion:
"But Sauron was not of mortal flesh, and though he was robbed now of that shape in which he had wrought so great an evil, so that he could never appear fair to the eyes of Men..."
That to me suggests a threshold had been crossed, so I coupled it with JRRT's writings about Sauron's slow descent back into darkness during the Second Age. Plus, a conflicted villain (to me) with a conscience is far more interesting than a unidimensional one.
On his snarkiness, my interpretation of Sauron comes by his condescension and sarcasm honestly. ;^)
Thanks again!
Reading this made my skin crawl. As usual, you were able to keep my attention all throughout. It's chilling how Aulendil feels/thinks about his servants, comparing them to "bipedal roaches" or preferring to do a dog than to bother himself with the humans who desired him, I suppose that's how he felt when he was around the elves or the orcs or whoever was serving him. But still, the little tugs at his conscience, whether from his memories or from something or someone, makes one feel that there might be some hope left still. I also felt frustrated about the seeming "absence" or "lack of presence" of the Valar while all this was happening.
I have so many favorite parts, but what I liked the most was the part when he looked at his hands just before doing the act.
Thanks so much, whitewave! Just like my response to Rhapsy, if this made your skin crawl and was chilling, then I have done my job.
Yes, Zigûr is nothing if not very arrogant and condescending, and I am sure he finds his role as subservient to Ar-Phârazon to be galling and thus will look at everyone around him with a jaundiced eye. However, I don't think he always held elves and men in such contempt. In fact, based on JRRT's writings in "Myths Transformed," that Sauron had "love (originally) for other intelligences," indicates to me that this positive aspect of his personality was in play when he decided to "reform" after the War of Wrath and that he did indeed have a conscience -- hard to imagine that a being with such complex intelligence would not. However, he eventually fell back into his old ways since the grip of Morgoth was strong (or something to that effect -- paraphrasing JRRT here). Anyway, the bitterness he displays here is part of that descent back into darkness (gleaned from JRRT's notes) which I mentioned in the responses to oshun & Rhapsy. The sacrifice is the point of no return.
As for any sliver of hope? Well, we'll see how the Pan!verse plays out. His better side is nothing if not a dogged survivor in my 'verse, even if suppressed and silenced in the face of raging ambition.
Don't get me started on the Valar and Númenor. I don't have very charitable opinions of the Guardians of Arda on that subject.
Oooh, and I'm glad you liked his contemplation of his hands. Hands are among the hallmarks of what make us human. So he's examining his own humanity there -- the bad and the good -- and his common link with the young man. JRRT refers to the corporeal forms of the Maiar as "raiment" like a sweater or coat, etc. I tend to ground this considerably more in the Pan!verse: put on a body, and one's mind and behavior are strongly influenced by it. A body is not just "raiment." Just a point of disagreement I have with the old Oxford don who sometimes wanted to have his biological cake and eat it, too. :^)
Thanks again!
What a gorgeous and terrifying snapshot of Numenor under Sauron's sway! The details of Sauron's clothing, the temple architecture, and the sacrifice itself are wonderfully and rather cinematically written; I feel, while reading, like I'm in an H. Rider Haggard novel or Cecil B. DeMille movie, lushly painted and oh so sinister.
I especially enjoyed the attempts of Sauron's conscience to be heard and then to stop the atrocity to come - the fact that he has a conscience makes his action all the more evil.
And it's a nice touch that there's an air of decadence and decay and corruption all over the city. Numenor, created to be a haven of wisdom, is debased; it allows slavery; its King has allowed and seemingly encouraged the worship of a god that his ancestors died to defeat. And everyone except poor Miriel is flattering Lord Zigur; the priests see nothing wrong with human sacrifice.
An outstanding story of Sauron and of Numenor in its last days.
Thanks so much, Raksha! On Sauron's conscience and remnants of the good in which he originated, yes, this makes his actions that much worse, and that is exactly what I am attempting to convey here and throughout my story arcs. Tolkien wrote (Letter 183, Letters of JRR Tolkien):
"In my story, I do not deal in Absolute Evil. I do not think there is such a thing, since that is Zero. I do not think that at any rate any 'rational being' is wholly evil. Satan fell. In my myth Morgoth fell before Creation of the physical world. In my story Sauron represents as near an approach to the wholly evil will as is possible."
Based on the various versions of the Akallabêth (that in The Silmarillion and in the History of Middle-earth), Númenor was well along the path to corruption by the time Ar-Pharazôn took Sauron as a "hostage." They were ripe for Sauron's manipulations so that's what I hoped to get across. There are those in Númenor willing to oppress others and commit all sorts of atrocities in the name of belief, just as there are today.
I'm wildly flattered to be mentioned in the same breath as H. Rider Haggard and Cecil B. DeMille and tickled that you and oshun had the same response to the visuals of the story. I'd like to have Maurice Jarre ("Lawrence of Arabia," "Dr. Zhivago") write the score. ;^)
I'm wildly flattered by being mentioned in the same breath as H. Rider Haggard* and Cecil B. DeMille
I loved it. It's so evocative - all the details, the atmosphere - like you're there. I really liked how you mentioned Kali, Moloch & co in the end. I've always been interested in old religions, and it really added to the understanding of the why&how-s the Numenoreans would sacrficice humans. It was lovely how 'real' you made Numenor by giving it an ancient Egyptian vibe, and mingled with other old cultures. And Sauron has a conscience! Or something that was a conscience once. That was one of the best things about it, I think. Stories easily lose credibility when there is absolute evil involved, at least to me. I also love how you made him observe that neither Melkor or Varda was worship-worthy really..or Eru. Hmm..I'm probaby not making sense other than saying it's great. :P
Thanks a million for reading and for the compliments, Aerlinn! I can't resist interweaving other mythologies into my vision of Tolkien's world which I think is fair enough, given that his mythopoeia drew upon established myths. I would have liked to have included one of the Aztec gods in that list, but the choices just didn't fit the word flow. :^) In one of JRRT's letters, he alluded to the Númenóreans having a culture akin to that of Egypt so I ran with that.
"Downfallen" does in fact comment on the darker side of religion. Sauron here might be viewed as a dark version of Elmer Gantry. My take on Sauron throughout my work is that he does retain his conscience. Tolkien wrote in Letter 183 (Letters of JRRT, ed. H. Carpenter):
"In my story I do not deal in Absolute Evil. I do not think there is such a thing, since that is Zero. I do not think that at any rate any 'rational being' is wholly evil. Satan fell. In my myth Morgoth fell before Creation of the physical world. In my story Sauron represents as near an approach to the wholly evil will as is possible."
Throughout my fics, I strive to write Sauron as a multifacted villain with a conscience. That's not altogether comfortable for many readers and sometimes not comfortable as a writer, but I don't find unidimensional bad guys particularly satisfying.
Again, thanks so much...and welcome to the SWG. :^)
I love your work!
The phrase that gripped me the most was "hands that had clasped Eonwë’s before we parted forever". I saw it as symbolic of letting go of that which was good, and never able to go back.
I love the architectural and clothing details. Please keep doing them. (I particularly liked the braids and gold beads.) It was like something from Babylonian culture, which was more vivid than the medieval styles more typical of fantasy writing and movies.
My deepest apologies for the belated response, Uvatha, but my appreciation of your comments are no less sincere! Thank you very much! Indeed, making choices that lead to a path of infamy is the major theme of this short story. My version of Sauron retains at least some vestige of conscience all the way to the destruction of the Ring (a nod to Tolkien's remark that Sauron was not wholly evil), so his parting from Eönwë (although they do meet much later in my 'verse) and especially, the human sacrifice are the irrevocable steps he takes.
Thanks muchly for the compliments on the architectural and clothing details! I was aiming for a vibe reminiscent of the ancient cultures of the Mediterranean and even Mesopotamia. Heck, my vision of Ost-in-Edhil is heavily influenced by Graeco-Roman culture. I figured something different that Medieval might be fun.
Thanks again, and my Dark Muse is quite honored that you enjoy his tales. :^)
Whoa. You wrote Sauron so well here it gave me shivers. This entire story was really intense and well written! There were a lot of powerful lines, but I loved the paragraph about sixth form the bottom - the one about hands.
Great story :)
Hey, thanks, Astris! I'm guessing this comment is the result of Dawn's posting on Tumblr? :^) Regardless of the source for inspiration, I very much appreciate that a) you read this; and b) that you liked it, especially the bit about the hands, which is intended to emphasize Sauron's manifestation as a human. In my 'verse, the Maiar can't just toss human form on and off like a sweater. Taking on such a form affects them profoundly.
At any rate, thanks again. First person Sauron is one of my guilty pleasures (and I have another from this POV in the works). In a fit of SSPing, my Dark Muse also recommends Into This Wild Abyss.
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Comments on Downfallen
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