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.
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.
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.
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.
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.
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.
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…
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.
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 so much. I loved doing cranky Fingon. He is always the cheerful one. It was a stretch doing a season story! I hate winter and I hate spring and I don't like humdity. And fall is OK. But I wrote a whole big long fic swap story that had to be all about fall once. So I did not feel like writing fall again! That's me and prompts! New York is great in the fall. I think there is a song about that.
I so have to fight not to say: ooowww he's so cute. I just bet I get an equal disgusted look from Fingon. Thank goodness Maedhros can make Spring a tad better, I have to say that he's also so sweet here, I just love this line: Maedhros’s mare gave him a baleful, disgusted glance from a short distance away. He turned and received a nearly identical one from Fingon, which caused him to laugh.
Hehehe, I can so imagine that! What a wonderful ficlet!
So happy that you enjoyed it! I loved turning my own expectations on their head and making Maedhros cheery in this moment and Fingon the grumpy one! I figure the long-distance relationship had to produce ups and downs on both sides, thankfully not always coinciding.
Thanks! So happoy you enjoyed him. Fingon is far too happy and reasonable in most of my stories, his main flaw being recklessness and impulsiveness. I really enjoyed getting to show the grouchy side of his personality. (Looking outside at a cold, whitish sky at the moment! I've had it with winter myself and spring isn't looking so terrific either--NYC goes from cold, rainy spring to hot, humid summer with no transition whatsoever!)
Thanks, Binka. (Poor Kano! He is channeling me here. Spring in New York City is terribly overrated--we go from winter to summer without the moderate in-between period usually.)
I feel for Fingon. We had this lovely stretch of three days that were 60-70F. Then we got more snow. WTF.
As always, you write these two so naturally, so intimately ... I can tell that you've lived with them for some time now. (Or they've lived with you? However cohabitation with muses works!) I love the subtle humor as well (I laughed out loud at "Come out into the light!" Somehow, I can imagine that tiresome phrase existing in M-e as well.)
Thanks! And Happy St. Patrick's Day. We had highs of 50F during those days, dipping below freezing at night and a lot of white/grey sky. I do feel like these guys live here (I just wish they would pick up after me!).
Awww! Thanks for re-reading and happy you still liked it. It was so short I just looked over it quickly to refresh my own memory. I have to admit I wanted briefly to revise it! But it's part of my history now and I retain a certain fondness for it also. Thanks for the comment.
Comments on The Threat of Spring
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.