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: 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.
Rescued from a brutal Angband hunt, an ex-thrall with a strange and powerful artifact embedded in his spine is brought to Himring, for it is one of the only places in Beleriand which welcomes such folk. Though he has no memories of his life before, Anniavas slowly becomes accustomed to his new…
“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…
It was only the second time Finwë had come out foraging with them, and of course this would happen—of course the Hunter would come, the Dark Rider on his steed with its terrible, heavy footfalls, and the deep-throated laughter that held no mirth, only malice.
Finrod and Bëor stop for a while on the road to Nargothrond to rest. The bodies of the Secondborn often grow weary, and Finrod laments, massaging Bëor's back and renewing his beloved's vigor with the work of his hands. But Finrod has other burdens of his own, Bëor soon discovers, returning…
Maglor without Maedhros, Daeron without Lúthien. Alone, they are nothing, but together, they can be something more. Where do you turn, when you have no one else left?
Written for Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang 2023, featuring artwork by athlai.
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.
For most of my life, when reading Lord of the Rings, I read it through the perspective of Gandalf's words about Éowyn, that she'd spent years trapped as a caregiver, watching the realm she love fall from honor into disgrace.
But what if Éowyn was also a student of history?
…
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Angbang Week 2026
Angbang Week is a tumblr event focusing on the relationship between Morgoth and Sauron, running from May 5-11, 2026
Gondor Week 2026
A Tumblr week event focusing on the history of the realm of Gondor.
Crablor Day
A day dedicated to everyone's favourite warcriminal crustacean - April 26, 2026
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'm not suggesting that everybody in Armenelos, even in the later Second Age, was unkind! But our second Numenorean was not one of the luckier ones. Fortunately, they are much happier in Pelargir! (The second Numenorean could well be "he", but I did not use any pronouns in the ficlet, I think.)
Indeed, there are many reasons for unkindness and I actually read their experience as coming from a complex source; I got the impression this was not very late in the Second Age, but still tensions may have been such in Armenelos at that stage as to affect the general nature of their families and companions, with the first growing up in an atmosphere of freedom of expression, and the second with insidious underlying fear in the capitol influencing the attitude of the second's family and associates, regardless of political affiliation. (Not sure why, but as I read an image of two middle aged men enjoying their morning appeared in my mind and I didn't even notice that no pronouns were used. My apologiesfor the assumption.)
As so often is the case with your drabbles, this is much bigger in the inside than it appears!
Thank you very much for your thoughts! Yes, something like that.
And no need to apologize! I just wanted to explain that I myself was using "they" because I hadn't quite made up my mind about their gender, not because I had decided they were non-binary. I have no problem with your envisioning them as men!
But it was was not I who came up with the idea of the SWG's Great Beleriand Bake-Off challenge and quite a lot of other people contributed to the Impressive prompt & recipe list for that challenge!
Ostensibly this is about bread, but it is about so much more than that too. How you've managed to include a little dissertation on home and belonging and how some will find that in the place of their birth, and others will find it in distant lands... that was well done. The man from Armenolos, finding generosity and kindness on a foreign shore is so beautifully bittersweet. ❤️
I suppose there is some complex tipping point to it, because we humans seem to be able to forgive our first homes quite a lot, just because we grew up there, but sadly sometimes that basic sense of safety or warmth just isn't there... But there is still hope for later, elsewhere!
Comments on True Bread
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.