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: Building Middle-earth Let global architecture be your inspiration in this challenge, where you will work with a prompts that are architectural styles, locations in Arda, or both.
Tuor and Elwing’s recreational sailing excursion goes terribly awry when a carnivorous siren casts her gaze upon their vessel. With her song, she enchants the mariners and boards with evil intent. She kills and eats their crewman, she demands Tuor’s hand in marriage, and for dessert…
Rescued from a brutal Angband hunt, an ex-thrall with a strange and powerful artifact embedded in his spine is brought to Himring, for it is one of the only places in Beleriand which welcomes such folk. Though he has no memories of his life before, Anniavas slowly becomes accustomed to his new…
Fëanor shrugged, studying the contents of his wine glass. “Something must be done about that house. It will fall down eventually.” “It does not follow that it must be you that tears it down single-handedly. Are you sure you do not want help?” “It’s not as though I…
As beautiful as he is dangerous, Aegnor, an elven prince, stands against the looming shadows of Angband. Brother to Galadriel, he commands the siege with a fierce intensity, a duty that exacts a heavy toll on him. But beneath the iron walls he has built lies a broken soul, haunted by a…
The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit film trilogies mark perhaps the most influential events in the history of the Tolkien fanfiction fandom. As the Rings of Power show approaches its third season, data from the Tolkien Fanfiction Survey shows that it is not even close to…
When uneasy dreams bring him back into Beleriand, Daeron finds a pair of twins who have lost their home, and an enemy who has lost himself. The Shadow's reach is growing ever longer, and if they are to survive, they must do it together.
Dip the Ladle
Tolkien had many tales, places, and artists who inspired his work. For this challenge, prompts invite creating a fanwork using one of Tolkien's influences. Read more ...
The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit film trilogies mark perhaps the most influential events in the history of the Tolkien fanfiction fandom. As the Rings of Power show approaches its third season, data from the Tolkien Fanfiction Survey shows that it is not even close to matching the impact of the films ... yet.
Data from the 2025 Tolkien Fanfiction Survey shows demographic changes in participant gender, age, and education and new revelations about neurodiversity.
Expanding on my 2018 article "Why People Don't Comment," comment data from the SWG underscores community as an essential component to a robust commenting culture.
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.
This is lovely, if bleak, as you said: the increasing lack of humanity in both Earendil and Elwing, and the loneliness of their fates. It's so easy to make the Valar into familiar, human(ish) figures, and thereby diminish them, but you set them at such a remote distance as Powers and that works very well. Earendil and Elwing, somewhere between, seem to take on some of the same pitiless distance. Thank you!
Thank you, I'm glad you thought my writing of the Valar worked, they really are very difficult. And Earendil's fate does seem to me terribly lonely, I really wanted a reason *why* he had to sail the skies and came up with this.
In many ways I'd like to think Earendil's life was happier, but this story just got hold of me, in part because of how bleak Earendil sounds when talking to Elwing in canon just before she choses immortality, and now I find I can't see him any other way, sad though it is.
I really enjoyed this! Bleak is a good description of it, but I can't see how else a mortal Man doomed to eternity could feel. I've always seen Earendil as a tragic figure, wanting to be mortal but remaining out of love. Your picture of him and Elwing growing farther and farther apart is even more sad, but I can see how it could happen. This is a great piece; I don't think I'll ever see Earendil the same way after reading it. Thanks!
Thank you for that. Earendil is a figure who seems unavoidably tragic to me, even though we're not really told how he feels about his fate. His fate does seem lonely, even if the Valar didn't intend it that way (whether Tolkien intended it that way I'm not quite sure)
Comments on No Regrets
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.