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.
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.
Instadrabbling Sessions for April, May, and June
Instadrabbling continues on the first Saturday of each month on our Discord server.
[Writing] How Tolkien Presents Ordinary People in "The Silmarillion" by Dawn Felagund
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.
[Writing] Blessed are the Leave-takers by Isilme_among_the_stars
As prince Curufinwë Fëanáro makes an historical speech from the high court of the King upon Túna, those at the back of the crowd strain to hear.
A silly little scene inspired by Monty Python's "Blessed are the Cheesemakers" scene from The Life of Brian, written for …
[Writing] After the Kinslaying by Deborah Judge
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.
[Writing] I Sit and Think of Times There Were Before by Erdariel
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.
[Writing] Until the Stars are All Alight by Dagstjarna
Reembodied in Aman, Celebrimbor decides to return to Middle earth to help heal the darkness and hurt wrought by the ring.
[Writing] a riot of shadow and shine by Elrond's Library
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.
But…
[Writing] The Exchange by Elrond's Library
An exchange is made during the Great Journey
Everyman
Create a fanwork about an ordinary character in the legendarium using a quote about an unnamed character as inspiration. Read more ...
Vintage
Pick your prompts from four bingo cards themed around vintage literature, art, poetry, and fanworks. Read more ...
Fandom Draws the Line: Fanworks, AI, and Resistance by Dawn Felagund, Grundy
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.
Grief, Grieving, and Permission to Mourn in the "Quenta Silmarillion" by Dawn Walls-Thumma
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.
Tolkien, Lunatic Physicists, and Abnegation by Cynthia (Cindy) Gates
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.
[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.
[Writing] Bar-en-Eladar by Gabriel
Out of the shadow, light is born anew.
A Chieftain is dead. And whilst the events surrounding his death are unclear, a son tries to come to terms with his loss.
Week of Kiliel
A Tumblr event dedicated to the relationship between Kili and Tauriel.
Aspec Arda Week 2026
This week-long event celebrates asexual and aromantic spectrum interpretations and headcanons of Tolkien’s Legendarium.
April/May Teitho Challenge
Teithio is running a prompt challenge around the theme of "heartbreak."
Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang 2026
The Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang is back for another summer of collaboration between artists and writers!
<i>“He might have been entertained by the sheer overdone tastelessness of a Sindarin Yule. Who knows?”</i>
OMG! You killed me here! That may have been an invented argument on his part, but it really captures something about Feanor for me.
I really love this paragraph also:
<i>A dog barked. Maglor had a glimpse of someone crossing between trees, one of the guard that had been set. An owl called, a hunting cry. From inside he heard a great gust of laughter and wondered distantly what that had been about. And then he looked back and Maedhros’s tall, dark form was still there, the hair tucked under the edge of his cloak, his eyes strangely peaceful. </i>
Great story.
Just makes me so happy that you thought well of this, Oshun. Thank you. I was very aware of once again inching out of my personal comfort zone and a owe Himring thanks for raising a few questions I hadn't even realised I needed answers to *g*. Feanor though - I'm often reminded of a movie I once saw about Picaso... larger than life personality, vast talent, utterly selfish, loudly flinging himself into 'quaint' local customs. Feanor would eat up a loud, tasteless Yule celebration, methinks.
Like a stalker I have tracked you down from esteliel so I can read more without waiting(I have no abilty to derfer gratification and am always astonished at people who ration the,selves in any sense). This delicate and beautifully told story does not disappoint; it is poignant without being sentimental, and moving and tender. I love the context with the thunder and banging and their speculation over what is happening. Your writing is superb - you show what is happening rather than tell and that is such a skill. Masterful story telling.
Why, hello there *g*.
The bit about showing instead of telling -- thank you SO MUCH, I always worry about whether I'm getting that right.
I wasn't sure I could write this, I'd never had much to do with Maedhros before, but it was a Yule swap request and I knew the recipient would like them so I tried and really enjoyed writing it - loved their voices and it was around the same period as Night the Sea Came In so I could build on my idea of what was happening to the world then. It was a challenge that turned into something I felt good about, and that makes me especially happy when someone likes it. Thank you very much for making me smile :)
(Oops, almost forgot -- when you're ready, I've started posting the sequel to Burning Bright over on AO3....)
Loved this, always told you you could write the feanorians! Beautiful story and spot on wording as usual. love how maedhros kind of watches the action from afar, not participating but always aware.
also love the personalities the broken and souldweary Maedhros and the always wonderfully cynical, if controlled emotional here, maglor but you also captures the clash of cultures, the stricter noldori warrior type culture that must have been built up through the centuries and the sindari culture that had developed through both peace and war. (tasteless yule lol but yes feanor would,i think, have loved it)
the struggle of love of different kind is also so deeply woven into this story, the love between brothers that also has become best friends an only trusted allies to eachother, the love of children and the hard choice of what is best for them, beautiful.
(also VODKA ROTFL)
XX
I remember when I wrote this how I wished you were around to share it with because, well, Vodka yes. I still have a copy of that chat filed away somewhere, lol.
Maglor I'm comfortable writing -- I don't try and force him to show up, but if he does I enjoy his company, but Maedhros was a whole new experience. What I pictured was a great prince reduced to being a guerilla leader who had lost most of his men but wasn't able to pack up and go home and say 'I tried.' Just going on down that road and knowing the end won't be good. And after all they've been through, the brothers would have been tight-bound together, they've seen the highs and they've seen things no one should have to remember.
The different kinds of love, and the way the boys were Maglor's final balance were what I focused on, and how Maedhros could make the hard choices - that's what a leader does, all the time - but in the end it was Maglor who had to choose.
Feanor would have been deeply amused by it all, yes.
(owe you an email, getting there!)
*hugs*
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