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.
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.
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.
Oohhh, this is hauntingly beautiful, both the text and art. Maeglin's disorientation is painful and touching. He sees the moon doubled as brilliant gems, and he can't quite understand why! So there was some amnesia included? How touching that the lights of the city still mean a safe haven to him. The art about Maeglin the mole is really cute, and makes me think of the Wind in the Willows book. Actually, now I remember that a chapter from the book, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, is another Pink Floyd theme.
Thank you for your lovely comment! Yes, I think anyone would willingly forget their experience with Morgoth, so perhaps Morgoth didn't have to do much to ensure Maeglin wouldn't ruin his plans. (But I like to think in an AU he did remember in time and warn the people of Gondolin — although we might need a fairly strong AU to get Turgon to actually listen and leave!)
And after Angband, even if he's not consciously remembering the experience, Gondolin was a very welcome sight, although with his amnesia he might have thought it was just the idea of a good meal and his comfy warm bed.
(Oh yes! Id forgotten about that rather surreal chapter in Wind in the Willows where Mole and Ratty have a totally different encounter with a demi-god and end up finding the lost baby otter snuggled up with Pan! I think Pink Floyd probably got the name of their album from the book. It also would not be out of place in BoLT; Tinfang Warble comes to mind. Or Ecthelion, in that AU where Turgon listens, piping the people of Gondolin as they depart via the gates of the city one early dawn.)
Confused pale Mole Maeglin gazing up at those ominous moon eyes up there in the dark, and then overcome by memory loss and seeking out that haunting gleam of Gondolin below.
Poor Maeglin. He was so unfairly judged, and he certainly didn't intend to be a mole for Morgoth. I wonder how much of the "hatred in his heart" as told in the histories was coloured by his later actions and not taking into account what Morgoth might have instilled in him.
Such a great prompt, and I really like what you've done with it! It works so well, having the drabble and the art to complement each other. I will never not feel sorry for poor Maeglin, and I love how sensitive this all is.
Comments on The Mole
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.