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: Title Track Tolkien's titles range from epic to lyrical to metaphorical. This month's challenge selected 125 of them as prompts for fanworks.
Our Annual Amnesty Challenge: New Year's Resolution Start 2026 off with creativity! If you missed a challenge or didn't get to finish or post a challenge fanwork, complete any 2025 challenge before 15 February to receive the stamp.
He was going to die. The molten rocks would burn him just like the cursed gem in his palm did. Maybe less painfully but still being burnt hurt and Maedhros knew it. He intimately knew it from his time in Angband where Þauron burnt him often in frustration and to toy with him and his master…
“Come on.” Maedhros grabbed his hand and pulled him along down the path, both of them quickening their pace now, until the trees opened up into a wide meadow filled with flowers, bright yellow celandine and dandelions and sweet-scented pale chamomile mingling with cornflowers and irises. On…
Aldarion storms off towards Middle-earth. For the Title Track challenge.
Current Challenge
Title Track
Create a fanwork using our collection of 125 titles from Tolkien's books, chapters, essays, poems, and fragments as inspiration. Read more ...
Random Challenge
Dark Matter
Create a fanwork using anti-prompts: prompts that don't appear in your fanwork. Read more ...
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.
This presentation for Mereth Aderthad 2025 discusses the many similarities between Tolkien's three "twilight children," Tinúviel, Lómion, and Undómiel (Luthien, Maeglin, and Arwen) in terms of appearance, plot, and cultural background. Yet these three characters play very different roles in the text.
Presented at Mereth Aderthad 2025, this paper makes the case thata, although the term "aromantic" had not yet been coined in Tolkien's day, many of his characters can be read as aromantic. The paper takes a closer look at Aredhel, Bilbo, and Boromir as three examples of characters who can be read as aromantic.
“There’s a goblin hiding in the taters, Dad!” Pippin hefted the pan, which was much too big for him to carry, let alone wield.
Around the World and Web
March Challenge - Tolkien Short Fanworks
Tolkien Short Fanworks is running a challenge for the month of March to create a Back to Middle-earth Month themed challenge.
Tolkien Fashion Week 2026
This two-week-long Tumblr event is dedicated to honoring the world of fashion and textiles Tolkien wrote about in his books.
Celegorm and Curufin Week 2026
Celegorm and Curufin Week is a Tumblr week celebrating the relationship between Celegorm and Curufin Feanorion
Back to Middle-earth Month 2026
Back to Middle-earth Month is returning for it's 20th year with many prompts and archival efforts.
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.
I like this event from Maglor's pov and I especially like his interaction with Uinen. Her description and characterization works well. You have a vivid set of images both of the path of destruction of the wave and the newly-formed cataract of the seas. What a cataclysmic event.
Thanks so much for the review :) What I liked most about taking part in the last B2MeMonth was the way these really unlikely ideas popped up out of nowhere. I've never given Uinen any thought before, she's just been a name, but now there's an entire backstory looking to find its way out. I think a lot of the descriptions were based on half remembered television footage of tsunami aftermath, but there was also my childhood nightmare of a huge wave coming up over Cape Town.... must have been rather like that in Numenor, for sure.
Ohhhh...I love this. It's haunting, evoking images of the tsunamis we've seen lately, and the destruction left behind. I love the idea of Uinen coming to Maglor, and of him giving the Silmaril to her (not Ulmo). The detail of him never singing a note on a beach was great! It just smacked of Maglor to me. She's perfect; not quite easy to understand, but still manages to get her image home.
And then, her voice drifting in and out with the ebb and flow of the waves, almost drowned by the shrilling of the gulls, she told him who.
And why.
Perfect! I can hear it, see it, and smell it. Ah, lovely as always, even through the sadness.
Thank you, dearest, there's no better compliment than your last line :) This was a strange one, nothing to do with the Maglor ficlets I was trying to write at the time, but it was just 'there' as was her voice, I could really hear her .... high pitched, creepy-strange, blending with the ebb-flow sound of the sea. Maglor was just Maglor - he doesn't show up often so when he does I really enjoy spending time with him.
Maglor here, for me, is still a prince, even if his life is that of a vagabond. Who else would have a "chat" with a Maia? The description of that shore and the sea is so vivid, I could actually see the scene in my mind. But the strongest part for me is the end, because of it's minimalism:
She told him who. And why.
It sounds so ominous, so final, and it evokes the feeling of "no return, no hope" so much like the fate of the Elves in Middle-earth. It's the story of the Elves, even if it's not.
Hey Scarlet :) Thank you, and I'm delighted the descriptions worked so well for you. Maglor for me is always a prince, no matter what circumstances overtake him. And an artist, so in tune with the natural world and open to conversations with unlikely beings. I loved the thought of them having some kind of special connection due to the Silmaril, and choosing who to give it to struck me as very Maglor.
This view of Maglor is really interesting, and the relationship with Uinen - I have not thought of that before, that he denied Ulmo and of course the Valar too that way. I like that idea. I don't think they would have let the Valar have the Silmarils at any cost.
That final glimpse of her standing there and then not is like the sea coming in- lovely image and rather sad to think of Maglor left behnd and never going home.
I'm not sure where this idea came from, but it made a lot of sense as it unfolded. I really could not see him tamely tossing that Silmaril to Ulmo and then wandering off to live a life of misery, not Maglor as I picture him. Uinen is someone I would love to write again, but I haven't found a space for her yet. I'm glad you enjoyed her.
I really like the idea of Maglor and Uinen being....not friends, but friendly. I like that he goes to her for information, too. The way she speaks is intriguing, too, and makes this seem very vivid.
I liked this line a lot (possibly just because I like contrary people, haha):
"He’d heard the stories of Fëanor’s second born bewailing his loss in song as he walked the shores of Middle-earth, so on principle he never sang a note on a beach."
The ending was interesting, too. The kind of vagueness and the lack of Maglor's response to it made it seem all the more eerie, I thought.
Why, thank you so much for reading. What a lovely review :) I'm glad you enjoyed Uinen, she's rather special, and also that you liked Maglor's contrariness about singing on beaches - I can see him being very unimpressed with that particular rumour about him, lol.
Comments on Broken
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.