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.
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.
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.
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.
These were simply flashes, a hint of a wider, greater world. A tantalizing glimpse of more, always at the edge of awareness, never within reach. Míriel would grasp it, if something as intangible as the concept of color could overflow in bounteous wonder over her hands.
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! The perspective was inspired by the banner I made for the TSFW prompt "a change in the weather" showing the stars wheeling above, and I wanted to convey a sense of the rain falling on them.
I think this is easily my favourite Melian and Thingol art I've ever seen. The perspective, the giant trees, the sky overhead -- as if, no matter how majestic and holy they are, they are still just small compared to nature and the vastness of the universe.
This painting is going to be how I visualise this scene from now on.
I love how we look upwards with them to the crowns of these huge trees and the rain is falling down. And also the glow about their faces, they've found the Secret Fire in each other. The art goes very well with the fic.
I'm so glad the grand scale comes across! (I have to keep flipping my mind because I used a photograph I took in a local forest here and the trees are much smaller... I can hug my arms right round the main tree! (I know this for a fact because I do hug trees and have hugged this one!))
This piece is just astounding, from the unusual perspective (brilliant interpretation of the layback prompt!) to the light and color that draws my eye to the center of the piece to the falling rain. You have such talent!
Thanks StarSpray! Yes, I think despite Yavanna's Sleep lying over the land, Melian's power might have been amplified by her feelings for Thingol and the trees got a bit excited too! ;)
I love this painting and the ficlet it accompanies. The silvery rain looks like falling stars and really that's perfectly elvish. There's a vastness that's conveyed here, where the woods dwarf the Melian and Thingol that's also very fitting. Gorgeous work!
Thank you so much, Aipilosse! I'm so please you enjoyed and the ficlet, and I love that you see falling silver stars — which indeed could be just what Melian and Thingol experienced during the 200 years they stared into each others eyes!
Comments on Methed e-Lúthad "Enchantment's End"
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.