New Challenge: Crossroads of the Fallen King
Cross "The Silmarillion" with a second text or fandom in this month's crossover challenge.
SWG News
A Sense of History: Thálatta! Thálatta!
While he never climbs the stairs of this Elf-tower, in Lothlórien Frodo Baggins descends a flight of steps to look into Galadriel’s Mirror, wherein he first sees the sea. This post examines the view.
Choose a Name for Our New Column!
Our temporarily titled "location bio" will focus on the landscapes and locations of Middle-earth. We need your help naming it!
New Challenge: Tengwar
Each day for thirty-six days, we feature a randomly chosen letter from the Tengwar as a prompt.
New & Updated Fanworks
[Writing] On a night of stars, a bird by Quente
Nimloth and Dior meet, and he is naked.
Alternatively,
Melian travels south to visit her daughter, and meets a familiar looking bird.
Written for the Tengwar prompt, Quessë (feather).
[Writing] Apprentice by Quente
Dior is in Menegroth learning to be his grandfather's heir -- but his grandmother decides to take him as apprentice too.
Written for the Tengwar Challenge, May 15: Súlë (spirit).
[Writing] Tengwar: To The Letter by cuarthol
For the Tengwar prompt challenge.
All 36 prompts plus bonus chapter
[Writing] A blip on the radar by daughterofshadows
Humanity took to the skies. Eärendil and Ilmarë adjust.
[Writing] History abandons us by AdmirableMonster
During his incarceration in Roderick Burgess' basement, Dream receives a strange, ancient visitor.
[Writing] Tengwar Acrostics by Himring
Responses to the Tengwar Challenge in which first letters spell out the name of a tengwa.
1) Early Encounter (Nerdanel, Indis)
2) Numenorean Lullaby (Almarian, Aldarion)
[Writing] Tengwar Drabbles by cílil
A collection of Silmarillion-centric drabbles written for the Tengwar Challenge. Short and sweet!
Current Challenge
Crossroads of the Fallen King
Create a fanwork that crosses with a second text or fandom. Read more ...
Tengwar
A daily prompt of a Tengwar letter per day. Read more ...
Random Challenge
Songs of Arda
Create a fanwork about music. Read more ...
New in References
Thálatta! Thálatta! by Simon J. Cook
[]While he never climbs the stairs of this Elf-tower, in Lothlórien Frodo Baggins descends a flight of steps to look into Galadriel’s Mirror, wherein he first sees the sea. This post examines the view.
[]
With Gildor Inglorion we finally climb the stairs of Elostirion and look on the view, and what we see appears to reveal a hidden thread in the story of Frodo Baggins. This post reads two annotated translations of two Elvish songs to step through a crossroads in the narrative to arrive at the tower on the margin of the story, wherein is a stone that is a window onto Valinor.
Grief, Grieving, and Permission to Mourn in the "Quenta Silmarillion" by Dawn Walls-Thumma
[]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.
Beyond the Silmarillion
[Writing] Waybread (The Waybredlik) by Himring
[]Lembas speaks out.
[Series] Apr 1st Stories by Uvatha the Horseman
[]Once a year on April 1st, a canon character from LOTR or the Silmarillion gets pranked.
[Writing] Crossing Forest River by Dawn Felagund
[]Bilbo recounts, in verse, the attempt of Gandalf, Beorn, and him to cross the Forest River after the Battle of Five Armies. Written for the Hungarian Tolkien Society's 2024 Mailing Competition.
Around the World and Web
Mythcon 53: Fantasies of the Middle Lands
Mythcon 53 will be held 2-5 August 2024 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with the theme "Fantasies of the Middle Lands."
Teitho May/June Challenge: Joker
For the May/June Teitho challenge, you can pick ANY of our past challenges that stir your imagination and write a story or create art for it.
Monstrous May 2024
Monstrous May is a Tumblr event where, for each day of the month of May, there is a prompt involving and invoking the monstrous.
Fellowship of the Fics: Modern AU May
During May, Fellowship of the Fics offers modern AU prompt lists for setting, character occupation, and dialogue on Tumblr.
May challenge at tolkienshortfanworks
The May challenge has been posted to the tolkienshortfanworks community on Dreamwidth. Thematic challenge: name; formal challenge: acrostic. As usual, these can be filled independently and freely combined with other prompts such as the SWG challenges. New participants welcome!
10th Birthday Celebration
Happy 10th Birthday, SWG!
It is our 10th birthday, and we are pleased to announce a few gifts we've put together in true Tolkienian style for the fandom!
Send a Birthday Card!
Much of fandom is collective and collaborative. Whether working with a beta or coauthor, commenting on the work of a favorite author or artist, or collaborating to run fandom websites or events, few of us act alone in the fannish sphere. Our birthday card project is a way, during the month of our 10th birthday, to show your appreciation for the people who make your fannish experience enjoyable. Choose from over 100 beautiful digital cards to send to the SWG member of your choice with a customized message. We are compiling albums of cards that we will send to recipients on August 1.
Silmfic Prompt Generator
Have you ever been in the mood to write, but you're not sure what to work on? Are you an author or artist who delights in challenges or swaps to push your boundaries? Do you want to try something new but aren't quite sure what?
The moderators of the SWG have collaborated to create a random Silmfic prompt generator. Containing ten different categories--one for each year of the group's existence--the generator allows you to roll one or roll them all. (Trust us: rolling them all gets pretty wild pretty fast!) You can reroll as many times as you would like, so if you get one of our scarily obscure options (and they are in there!) or an impossible combination, you can keep rolling until you produce a combination that screams, "WRITE ME!!"
Writing Contest and Prize Drawing
Now we can hardly unveil this new gizmo without encouraging people to use it. During the month of July, we encourage our members to play with the prompt generator and create fanworks based on it. On August 16, we will be holding a drawing for anyone who participates to win some Silmarillion-themed prizes.
10th Birthday Prize Drawing Rules
- All stories written using the Silmfic prompt generator between July 1 and August 15, 2015, are eligible for the drawing.
- In order to be eligible, stories created for the contest must
- be posted to the SWG archive at silmarillionwritersguild.org. Stories posted to our LiveJournal, Dreamwidth, Yahoo! or Tumblr groups are not eligible.
- select 10th Birthday Celebration Contest from the Challenges list. Please note that there is also a 10th Birthday Celebration NO CONTEST option for those who wish to write using the generator in honor of our birthday but don't want to be entered in the drawing; make sure you select the correct challenge.
- list the prompts you used to create the story in the Story Notes or Chapter Notes.
- You can roll for just one category or all ten. You can reroll in a category if you want to, so if you end up with an impossible prompt or something you're just not comfortable writing, feel free to try again. And again and again. (Seriously, we have no idea if and how many times you reroll! Have fun with it!)
- Each story posted will result in one entry into the drawing. (So if you post five stories, you will have five entries into the drawing.)
- Each participant is eligible to win only once.
- If you win, you must be willing to provide a mailing address for us to send your prize to you.
- If you post an entry as part of an existing collection, please make sure to select 10th Birthday Celebration Contest from the challenges list and identify the prompts you used in the chapter notes for the piece or pieces that you are entering. This is how our mods will know from the table of contents of your collection which pieces in the collection are being entered, so it is important to place the prompts in the correct location.
- You can add a chapter to an existing work-in-progress using the prompt generator. Again, make sure to select the correct challenge and include your prompts in the chapter notes for the chapter(s) you are entering.
- The contest begins July 1 and ends on August 15 at midnight Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). We will draw winners on August 16. Winners will be notified at the email address they have listed on the SWG archive, so please make sure this is correct if you are participating. If we do not hear back within a week, we will re-draw a new winner. If you expect to be offline during the week after the drawing, please let us know ahead of time so that we do not give away your prize if you win and cannot respond within a week.
Prizes
There are three prizes as follows:
- A book set, including a 1st edition copy of The Silmarillion, Perilous and Fair: Women in the Works and Life of J. R. R. Tolkien (essay collection, edited by Janet Brennan Croft), and The Road to Middle-earth by Tom Shippey.
- Your choice of a print by Tolkien fan artist and professional illustrator Jenny Dolfen, signed by the artist.
- A vintage, hard-to-find jigsaw puzzle (500 pieces) featuring an illustration from Tolkien's Father Christmas Letters.
Artwork and banner by Lyra and used with permission.
This challenge opened in .
Fanworks Tagged with 10th Birthday Celebration
Half Past Ten in the Rose Garden by grey_gazania
Caranthir discovers that this romance thing is a lot harder than it looks.
A Song for My Beloved by Cheeky
Erestor has a crush, Maglor has a harp and Fingon's singing is really, really bad. Just who is the song for? That's what we all want to know. The beginning of Maglor and Erestor's story.
In Dor-Cuarthol by Himring
They were former outlaws who under the leadership of Turin and Beleg, the Elf from Doriath, turned to fight against the Shadow in the North. It was more of an idea, really, than a homeland--or a period of time, too short to call an era--but they gave it the name of Dor-Cuarthol, the Land of Helm and Bow.
Those former outlaws--Algund was one of them. He and Beleg had something in common, but there was more that divided them from each other.
Impromptu Song by Scribe of Mirrormere
Prideful young Maglor finds inspiration for a new song.
By Love or at Least Free Will by grey_gazania
Short scenes in the life of Fingon and Ianneth, his wife.
Turn at Last to Home by StarSpray
Idril returns to Tirion.
And Every Single One of Us Still Left in Want of Mercy by grey_gazania
Parmë's voice was calm, but when she turned, Canyanis saw that her face was ashen and her hands were trembling.
"Parmë?" Something clenched in her chest, and she walked over and took hold of Parmë's shaking hands. Something was horribly, horribly wrong.
A Stitch in Time by grey_gazania
The quilt stayed with him — first on Balar, then in Lindon, then in Rivendell. It kept his children warm at night and, later, covered the bed of a small boy named Estel. And when Sauron was finally defeated — the One Ring destroyed at the tiny hands of two brave Hobbits — and it was time for the Ringbearers to depart Middle-earth forever, Elrond took the quilt, worn and threadbare though it was, with him.
Loyalty Outtakes by grey_gazania
Short scenes that didn't make it into Loyalty.
Loyalty: A Tale in Three Voices by grey_gazania
Who were Ulfang's people, and why did they betray the Elves? The truth as seen by Uldor, Caranthir, and Ulfang's granddaughter.
Finding Home by Independence1776
A loosely related collection of stories about Elrond and Celebrían in Aman.
Final two chapters: Elladan and Elrohir bring gifts and memorializing Arwen.
Short Tales of Arda by grey_gazania
Various short pieces.
Newest (3/19/16):
"Ammë": Curufin and Celebrimbor struggle with the absence of Celebrimbor's mother.
Approaching Rivendell by Ysilme
100 drabbles with Elrond Half-Elven through the ages, focussing on the creation of and the living in Rivendell.
(Drabble 14 is part of the Silmfic Prompt Generator Writing Contest for SWG's 10th Birthday)
