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
Sitcom
Create a fanwork using prompts from a bingo card of sitcom tropes. 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.
Oh! I love the point of view in this one. Interesting to ponder the shift from captive to something more.
Favorite lines:
"A pursuit suitable for a lady of Numenor," he had written on the note he'd included with needle, thread and material.
She'd laughed. The only stitches she knew were the careful lines of rivets binding sheets of armor, whether on man, beast or machine.
So she is careful to devote her full attention to each problem, aware that proof of the trust she does not possess earns her hours outside her rooms and additional freedoms. Pharazon may not trust her. He may never trust her. But she may yet prove herself to be indispensable.
Good stuff. Hope that you will be inspired to give us a little more.
There is this Thing in fandom, where you click on something out of curiosity just before bed and find the fic you didn't know you were looking for. This is -- I don't have the right words, but god I can see him and the settings, and I can see and feel her. I even hear her voice.
I know this is never a comfortable request/demand, but honestyly I would love to read more. Like maybe a novel? Anyhow, thank you for sharing.
Hi! I've been trying to respond to both of these lovely comments, but it's been a very long time and I must be forgotting something I need to do for it to work. Thank you both for reading and commenting. I do hope there's more of these two playing games with the universe.
Thank you. They're terrific fun to write. I think Pharazon isn't a fool by any stretch, but he must've felt very isolated and afraid, afraid enough to turn to someone he can't find trustworthy.
It is possible his vision was a warning. I would say that she is very comfortable with night (and day) terrors. At this point, she lives in nightmares. But I would also say that she is an extraordinarily unreliable narrator and confidant.
Author's Response:
It is possible his vision was a warning. I would say that she is very comfortable with night (and day) terrors. At this point, she lives in nightmares. But I would also say that she is an extraordinarily unreliable narrator and confidant.
“But she came to save him, and I was bested by a lovestuck girl and a hound.”
She settled back into her chair and frowned, and then she moved her castle forward. “That still smarts, and I cannot say I agreed with her decisions.”
I do love this. Almost she is laughing at herself, though it will never not bother her. I read the chapter on DW but it was late and I wanted to come back and read it a second time. The look at life, destiny, predestiny, free choice... nice. That two-sided duel, on the board and in the way they felt out each other's soft points with words, built so well. I kept waiting for one of them to get careless - no, I was waiting for her to get careless, say one word too many, but she counts her words, doesn't she? And the dream made me shiver because - well, we know.
She is most definitely laughing at herself but she isn't about to let that defeat go, even if it would be wise to do so.
Yes, almost everything she says is very intentional; her one tender area, that ill-fated relationship (partnership/friendship/haven't yet found the correct term) with Celebrimbor, might be the one place she might slip, but it seems to be that she might have learned that displays of vulnerability can be very tactical. Show the limp, exaggerate it even and your opponent might underestimate your strength and resolve. Pharazôn could very well be susceptible to a display of humanity, after all.
Comments on A Game of Chess
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.