New Challenge: Allusive
Literature and art constantly refer back to each other using allusions, and this month's prompts are inspired by allusions to literature, myth, art, and history.
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: Allusive
Literature and art constantly refer back to each other using allusions, and this month's prompts are inspired by allusions to literature, myth, art, and history.
Cultus Dispatches: "The Rings of Power" Is a Ripple (So Far)
Tolkien Fanfiction Survey data for 2025 shows that "The Rings of Power" TV series has not had the same impact on the fandom as the film trilogies did ... so far.
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.
Cultus Dispatches: Six Demographic Takeaways from the 2025 Tolkien Fanfiction Survey
Ten years of demographic data from the Tolkien Fanfiction Survey show consistencies in who reads and writes fanfiction, as well as a few key demographic shifts.
[Writing] Into the West by Grundy
Dawn does not call sailing off into the unknown with a guy they've only known a few days a great plan.
[Writing] From That Rubble by StarSpray
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…
[Writing] Explain This by Elrond's Library
Melkor demands an account of Mairon’s failures.
[Writing] Message in a Bottle by StarSpray
Over the course of his very long life he had found a handful of messages in bottles, but it had been a very long time. So when he found the glass bottle on his little stretch of pebbly beach, he picked it up with the intention of tossing it into his recycling. But it wasn’t, he found, just…
[Writing] Eä's Redemption by AaronAzrael
This is my new poetical attempt to add my own interpretation to Tolkien's Cosmology as to Eru's Creation and the Valar's minds and behind-the-scene providence reasons and mechanisms.. I often review Eä as part of our own world, just in another dimension, this is why I have always seriously…
[Writing] A Thousand Winds that Blow by StarSpray
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.
[Artwork] Nerdanel/Nienna moodboard by Independence1776
A Nerdanel/Nienna moodboard.
Arda Underground
Take the dark back streets of one of Arda's cities, explore an unsigned tavern or hovel, and meet the people too insignificant or unsavory to make it into the history books. Read more ...
"The Rings of Power" Is a Ripple (So Far) by Dawn Walls-Thumma
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.
Six Demographic Takeaways from the 2025 Tolkien Fanfiction Survey by Dawn Walls-Thumma
Data from the 2025 Tolkien Fanfiction Survey shows demographic changes in participant gender, age, and education and new revelations about neurodiversity.
Communities Do Comment: Expanding the 3C's of Commenting with SWG Data by Dawn Walls-Thumma
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.
[Writing] Down the Long Years by Isilme_among_the_stars
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…
[Artwork] The Mirror of Galadriel by skywardstruck
Smoke rises from the Mirror, where the Lady of Lothlórien awaits to share its visions.
Sindar Week 2026
A Tolkien event week for the Sindar, the Grey-Elves, from the Years of the Trees to the Third Age.
Finwean Sibblings Prompt Fest 2026
A prompt-based fandom event aiming to focus on celebrating Finwë's children: Fëanor, Findis, Fingolfin, Lalwen, & Finarfin - ships, gen relationships, or character-centric
Tolkien Sapphic September
Tolkien Sapphic September is a month long event focusing on Sapphic relationships and characters in Tolkien and adjacent materials.
Gigolas Week 2026
Gigolas Week is a tumblr event focusing on the relationship between Legolas and Gimli
Innumerable Stars 2026
A character-based Tolkien fandom gift exchange is returning for another year of gifting.
What an original take of the difference between Elves and Man, and so intriguing too! Finrod's explanation makes sense, and I remembered of your poem about Eruhini that the Elves envy Men their wings.It's funny too how the elves are puzzled about fictional works. and the funniest thing is... I imagine if they happen to read our fanfics about them. Why, I believe they will be very very mad indeed. It's good that they cannot return to Middle Earth, eh?
But if they are incapable of creating fictional work, for they cannot imagine what isn't, then how about telling lies? Isnt lies at their core is fictional stories?
Anyway, on to the 2nd chapter.
That's for the review, Naltariel! I'm glad you enjoyed the story.
Yes, lies are a type of fiction - but a pretty minor one. My Elves in this story have some imagination - they can tell lies, and visualize things like "What if Feanor had had red hair?" - but their ability to really stretch their imaginations beyond the most obvious 'alternate realities' is extremely limited. Creating the United Federation of Planets or Spider-Man is a stretch too far for them - those things are just too 'unreal' for them to imagine on their own. Every meet someone who wants to be a writer very badly but just doesn't seem to have any interesting ideas to write about? That's my Finrod at the end. And Melenbrethil (who is a more typical Elf than Finrod) has his parallel in the sort of person who sees no point in fiction and only reads nonfiction books 'because they're true'.
So you think about ff.net as well! :D
Sure do! I look at that endless sea of bad Mary-Sue stories with a lot more respect now. ;-)
Seriously, one thing I did want to do in this story was to give our kind a 'strange gift' that is actually worth having. The ones we actually see in Tolkien (a body that falls apart in all sorts of nasty ways, and death) - well, if those are gifts, i want to know where the Returns Department is. True creativity, on the other hand, and the ability to take great pleasure in the making and viewing of imaginary realities - to me, at least, that's a true and meaningful gift, not a booby prize.
What a wonderful idea! But Clark Kent at those times?
Okay, in fact, you may have different views of the world, if you are supposed to join it, really, forever, and there is no place to where you can fly from it.
You would not only try to change it, make it better, while you are young, but all the time, and probably fail the same way, but could not leave it this way.
Yes, I often deny elves from ever being young, do not suffer of deseases or old age problems, but if I want to face everlasting battle against entropie, I do not know...
Yes, you recognize, I spent lots of thinking about, I did, indeed!
Oh my God I found it again! A casual comment on tumblr made me remember your story from when I read it ages ago, and absolutely loved it (I was to shy to comment back then). Your take on the differences between men and elves makes just so much sense to me, and has since been firmly lodged in my personal headcanon. Kudos to you, and thank you for sharing this story!
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