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
All Good Beasts
Create a fanwork featuring an animal. Show how important a beloved animal is to a character or tell a story through the eyes of an animal. 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 for teh review and the insight - you're right, it might be considered the arc of a day. Incidentally, that thought never crossed my mind while writing. ;)
Thank you very much for the review! I had hoped that that would be a striking scene, so it's good to know that it succeeds (for some people, at least!)
I liked this immensely--from the bright, rosy start to the melancholy end. You have such great way of using words to paint pictures, and having seen your work with pictures, I think you're also good with using pictures that inspire words to be written. I really, really like reading about your Fëanorians, particularly your Nerdanel.
Aaw, thanks, you're flattering me. It would be easy to go off writing an essay on a relation between words and pictures for me (in writing I'm usually describing the visuals I get imagining the scene, some sort of 'in-mind cinema', while with the manips I'm trying to get the visuals themselves down in pixels, so your connection isn't even so far off), but that would be beyond the scope of the review. Thanks for liking my Feanorians. Sneaky buggers, aren't they, worming their way into other minds?
Thank you. :) I hope it doesn't end at sorrow for poor Nerdanel. She deserves better than that, and I daresay she is stronger than succumbing permanently, too.
You write Nerdanel really well. She has such a bittersweet life. I'm always so impressed and in awe of Feanor, and the way your Nerdanel always wakes me up to the reality. It adds a much more personal touch to the glory of the Noldor and how their greatest glory came from Feanor but also their greatest sorrow. The sun is supposed to mark the waning of the Elves and that's exactly what it does in Nerdanel's case. She's very strong, and I admire her for moving forward despite her loss.
Comments on Changing Lights
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.