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
Meet & Greet
For our annual Matryoshka challenge, we add an interactive component. Receive your first prompt and track down the rest by interacting with other SWG members or finding prompts posted online. 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.
A very evocative look at the time just after the sinking. How desperate and alone and devastated Maglor must fell at this point. (Actually he's probably been feeling desperate and devastated for a long while, but it's different in company.)
This was written as an insta-drabble, so I did not have much time to think about when exactly it is set. But I vaguely imagined this as not being immediately after the sinking although it is his first return to this particular area. He is still very desperate but I suspect he would not have managed to be defiant quite in this way right after Maedhros's death. (Also, immediately after the sinking, this area may have been quite dangerous to be in, given the changes on the map.)
Oh gosh, yes, reading it again I realise my sleepy brain missed the ample clues you provide that it's set some time after (wandering Maglor returns, decay (not just collapse) of the tunnel, and the more subtle one of his state of mind.
Although they both receive literal sweetness, the contrast of her nephew's experience of the comfort he receives with her experience with Caranthir is stark.
Haleth badly needs a hug, of course, but the two people she needs to hug her the most are dead. Being able to hug her nephew and to bark at Caranthir is not enough but is better than nothing...
This atmospheric drabble makes me think of the long life of Elves, and how they must have visited the same places in different times, hit by strong memories like Maglor here. They thought they were desperate on that day, when they had not yet reached the bottom of their despair. Angsty and good. I hope he’ll find shelter in Carathir’s keep.
Yes, that would be similarly true of Celebrimbor as well, of course, if he ever returned to the Ered Luin!
I am afraid that Maglor won't find shelter in Caranthir's keep, at least not if this piece is in the same timeline as my story "The Sea Comes for Helevorn". I wrote there that "The remains of Caranthir’s house are obliterated, as well as anything else that still endured there."
Comments on Survivors: A Pair of Drabbles
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.