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.
The thing about forgiveness, he thought, was that it was so much easier when the object of it was far away—or dead. It was so much easier to let it all go when those responsible were far away and unable to do any more harm.
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.
But…
Current Challenge
Everyman
Create a fanwork about an ordinary character in the legendarium using a quote about an unnamed character as inspiration. Read more ...
Random Challenge
Swinging 40s
Choose a prompt from a list of music, films, novels, inventions, and more from the 1940s. Read more ...
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.
It took me the longest time to think of posting it here - I'm never sure about Erestor and Glorfindel and the SWG readers, lol. Thanks so much for the suggestion, I've added it to the header :)
I know I reviewed this at a different location, but your posting it here just presented me with a wonderful opportunity to dive back into it. No hardship at all!
I adore the characterizations you've got going here - the dichotomy of both elves in their areas of strength and their times of concerned uncertainty. They ring clear and their relationship with each other resonates in harmony. I now have had the opportunity to read both Chapters 1 and 2 and I'm so very happy with where you have the story going. You're not shying away from the sexual aspects, but also exploring the growth of this most surreal relationship between two of my favorite characters.
Thank you for writing this. It's a joy to read and I look forward to more chapters.
Erulisse, I'm so sorry I didn't respond sooner. Life's been crazy and the wheels rather came off for a bit there (I've barely been online and it took me till now to put the third chapter up). I'll treasure your thoughtful review - characterizations were very important to me in writing this, I wanted to be true to who (and what) they were as well as who they would grow into in the end. The sex was important for that too, for what it said about the way their relationship progressed (and because Erestor rather set it up in the first scene, when I'd been innocently assuming I was going to write a 'light teen' story *g*). I'm flattered you're reading it again, it's a special treat to receive feedback twice on a story. Thank you so much.
Heartwrenching for both of them, I fear. You've drawm me so totally into the story and these two characters whom I love so. Bravo to Celebrian for recognizing one of Ulmo's own in her student. Sage words of advice at the end.
Quickly didn't happen, because I utterly fail :( I'll post the final chapter tomorrow (I cannot fight with SWG late at night, it's too harrowing, lol)
This was the point where I wondered if the story should even have a happy ending, after all the original Little Mermaid had a miserable resolution :D. I love Celebrian. I started writing her by accident mainly, but she's grown into one of my favourite people. She must have met so many people, seen so many places, before she settled down with Elrond.
I'm very sorry to see this come to an end, although it was satisfying and had lovely twists and turns. I loved this tale of unexpected love and triumphs and I'll remember this as one of my favorite Glorfindel/Erestor tales - a pairing that I adore. Thanks for writing this, each chapter read made my day.
I've loved sharing thiis with you, Erulisse. It's the fic I didn't think I could write that unwound in front of me and gave me so much pleasre that it's like being complimented on one of my children :) Thank you so much for all the kind words.
Through the course of reading this, I wondered if, and how, you would reveal Erestor's true feelings. I was not expecting a confrontation with a Maia or Valar. It's amazing how much more effective romance is in a setting where, if you were to proclaim to your love that you would fight the gods for them, there are actual gods for you to fight.
Ehh, I do not have experience writing Ulmo or Osse (though he and Uinen were a great couple and just wrote their own lines). I was horrified by the prompt, swore I couldn't do a thing with it, and then somehow this story found me and I fell in love with the idea of Ulmo's children and a fey sea-being finding love and a home far from the ocean. I am so glad you enjoyed it, it's one of my personal favourites (partly because there was some hard writing growth involved in getting it out :D)
Comments on Love Over Gold
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.