The pure light falling endlessly like rain
Aug. 17th, 2025 07:58 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
swg_archive_feedLong afterwards, Elemmire speaks to a stranger about his most well-known work, the lament for the Two Trees.
swg_archive_feedTwilight, Child Of: Comparisons Between Tinúviel, Lómion, and Undómiel
Aug. 16th, 2025 02:39 amswg_archive_feedThis presentation for Mereth Aderthad 2025 discusses the many similarities between Tolkien's three "twilight children," Tinúviel, Lómion, and Undómiel (Luthien, Maeglin, and Arwen) in terms of appearance, plot, and cultural background. Yet these three characters play very different roles in the text.
Strawberry Daiquiri
Aug. 15th, 2025 11:02 pmswg_archive_feedFinarfin makes it a rule for his life to stay as far from Tirion and the mess that is his brothers, but during an important festival the house of Finwë gathers to celebrate together. As he tries to cope with the resulting headache, he helps Finrod make a new friend.
A Wing and a Prayer
Aug. 15th, 2025 04:12 pmswg_archive_feedFingon’s prayer. Last-minute sketch entry for the 40s monthly challenge!
One in the Deep Waters
Aug. 15th, 2025 09:30 amswg_archive_feedMaglor finds himself alone with only sorrow and song for companions. But lamentation can neither undo the sorrows of which it tells, nor turn new hardships aside.
Love, You Didn't Do Right By Me
Aug. 15th, 2025 02:42 amswg_archive_feed"In the days of the peace before Melkor broke the Siege of Angband, Finrod would often visit Andreth, whom he loved in great friendship." -- Athrabeth Finrod Ah Andreth
A slice of life chance (?) meeting of Finrod and Andreth on the dance floor of a nightclub in a WW2 AU. Written for the Swinging 40's stamp challenge on the song prompt of "Why Don't You Do Right?"
A slice of life chance (?) meeting of Finrod and Andreth on the dance floor of a nightclub in a WW2 AU. Written for the Swinging 40's stamp challenge on the song prompt of "Why Don't You Do Right?"
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Admin Post: New Challenge: Kids These Days
Aug. 14th, 2025 08:41 pm![[admin post]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/entry/admin_post.png){kind=small}
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dawn_felagund in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
silwritersguild
If there is a unifier among generations, it is complaining about the kids and teens in the generations coming up behind them. There was likely an ancient Mesopotamian complaining about the brainrot effects of that newfangled cuneiform and kids carving their names on the ziggurat walls. Likewise, there is no reason to believe our beloved Tolkien characters were immune to these timeless worries and whinges about the young people around them (or experienced the ever-helpful "advice" of their elders when they were themselves whippersnappers).
This month's challenge will offer a bingo card chock-full of perennial complaints about kids and teens. Choose one or several prompts to include in your fanwork. Numbers will not be called; you can select any prompt you want at any time. Your fanwork does not have to be about kids and teens; as always, we welcome creative interpretations of our prompts.
There are special stamps available for completing rows, columns, diagonals, or (if you are old enough to withstand the effort of going uphill both ways) a full card blackout where you manage every prompt. Note that, to complete rows and blackouts, you do not need to use all of the prompts in a single fanwork but can use them across multiple fanworks. Let the moderators know if you need one of the special stamps.
You can find the bingo card and text prompts for the Kids These Days challenge here.
Thank you to hîn_isil for this month's adorable stamps!
In order to receive a stamp for your fanwork, your response must be posted to the archive on or before 15 September 2025. For complete challenge guidelines, see the Challenges page on our website.
Admin Post: Prompts Needed for September's Jumble Sale Challenge!
Aug. 14th, 2025 06:14 pmdawn_felagund in silwritersguild
Have you ever noticed one of our challenges or prompts that would be absolutely perfect … for someone else to write? Or maybe the perfect storm of challenge and prompt combos that would be entirely delicious, intriguing, perplexing, or evil? For our September challenge, Jumble Sale, you will have your chance to offer up past challenges and prompts to other creators to work their magic!
How It Will Work
You can offer up to five items "for sale" at the jumble sale! Items should consist of a past SWG challenge or a prompt for a challenge. You can combine challenges and prompts, but all challenges and prompts should come from the SWG collection. You can find the full list of challenges here. Items will be listed as the prompts in the Jumble Sale challenge for other creators to make fanworks for.
How many challenges/prompts can you include in your item? As many as you want! Be tame, go wild, the choice is yours!
Next, you can set an optional "price" on your items. These are extra conditions that the creator must fulfill in claiming your item. Remember that the SWG is a positive-focused space; make sure your price is what you want to see, not what you want to avoid.
Some examples:
- It's Magic challenge using the prompt "The stain will not come out…" from the First Lines challenge
- Combine the Soap Opera prompt "secret family" with the Also Appearing prompt "mockumentary"
- Notion Club Revival challenge; price: include the pairing Celegorm/Maeglin
Ready to put some items in our Jumble Sale? Use the form here to send us your items!
A Hundred Miles Through the Desert
Aug. 14th, 2025 04:53 pmswg_archive_feed“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 the other side of it was a larger party than Maglor had ever seen in Lórien—five figures sitting in the grass. Huan barked again, and they all looked up. “It seems everyone has come to fetch us home,” Maedhros said, laughing, as all their brothers scrambled to their feet.
After years in Lórien, Maglor and Maedhros are ready to return to their family and to make something new with their lives--but to move forward, all of Fëanor's sons must decide how, or if, they can ever reconcile with their father.
After years in Lórien, Maglor and Maedhros are ready to return to their family and to make something new with their lives--but to move forward, all of Fëanor's sons must decide how, or if, they can ever reconcile with their father.
Lingering
Aug. 13th, 2025 09:29 pmswg_archive_feedDaeron misses Maglor, in StarSpray's wonderful Mezza Voce.
Under the Light of the Stars
Aug. 13th, 2025 05:26 amswg_archive_feedA soldier in Elendil's army and the last High King of the Elves strike up an unusual friendship under the light of the stars.
The Aromantic in Tolkien
Aug. 11th, 2025 02:45 amswg_archive_feedPresented at Mereth Aderthad 2025, this paper makes the case thata, although the term "aromantic" had not yet been coined in Tolkien's day, many of his characters can be read as aromantic. The paper takes a closer look at Aredhel, Bilbo, and Boromir as three examples of characters who can be read as aromantic.
Shadow's Scribbles 2025
Aug. 10th, 2025 07:59 pmswg_archive_feedFour art pieces for Scribbles & Drabbles 2025.
Love, Not Wisdom (Drabbles about Men)
Aug. 8th, 2025 08:33 pmswg_archive_feedA collection of drabbles primarily featuring male characters from the Legendarium
Gil-galad was an Elven King: Kingship and Personhood in the last High King of the Noldor
Aug. 8th, 2025 07:38 amswg_archive_feedThis Mereth Aderthad 2025 presentation considers what we know of Gil-galad beyond his primary role in the text as king. While we have some information about his character, such as his appearance, other facts—names and parentage, for instance—remain unsettled. In other areas, we know almost nothing about Gil-galad, especially compared to the other Noldorin kings, which "leads to him feeling unmoored in the narrative." Gil-galad does not speak, performs no actions outside of kingship, and is given no meaningful relationships. Basic facts, such as his burial, are missing. He is seen from the outside, becoming a side character despite being the longest-reigning Noldorin king. It becomes the task of fans to answer the question Merry asks in "The Lord of the Rings": Who was Gil-galad? Fan creativity plus tantalizing glimpses of his character have filled in the blanks Tolkien left.
meanwhile the world goes on
Aug. 8th, 2025 07:38 amswg_archive_feedFollowing Maglor as he suffers through captivity in Dol Guldur, and his journey to healing afterward.
Mezza Voce
Aug. 8th, 2025 07:38 amswg_archive_feed...everyone here seemed to think Daeron should return to them equally unchanged, the same merry minstrel he had been long ago before the Girdle had been breached. He was yet a minstrel, and he was often merry, but he had seen and done so much that so many here could never even imagine. He had come very close to death more than once, and yet survived. He did not care what others might think of him, really—except for a select few—but it would be tiresome to be always catching them off guard, and his love for one of the sons of Fëanor would catch many very much off guard, he knew.
Daeron settles back in among his own people, travels to Tirion--and meets Fëanor.
Daeron settles back in among his own people, travels to Tirion--and meets Fëanor.
"Kidnap Fam" and the Living Legendarium
Aug. 8th, 2025 07:38 amswg_archive_feedThis paper looks at the origins of the popular fanfiction "kidnap fam" trope in the editorial history of the published "Silmarillion." With much of the attack on Sirion written in 1930, prior to Tolkien writing The Lord of the Rings, Christopher Tolkien was faced with an editorial choice in how to reconcile this event with the later invention of the character of Gil-galad. Adding Gil-galad and Círdan to the tale of Sirion's destruction, however, raises questions for many readers about the motives and choices of Maglor and Maedhros in choosing to take Elwing's sons. Survey data, shows that readers tend to interpret characters' morals and motives based on what they believe those characters knew. The introduction of Gil-galad and Círdan by Christopher Tolkien, therefore, generates the moral complexity that drives the wealth of fanfiction about the "kidnap family." These many layers of intervention in the story—by Tolkien, by Christopher, by fan creators—mimics the storytelling tradition and creates a living legendarium: not a mess, as some readers despair of the multiple contradictory "Silmarillion" texts, but an opportunity.
swg_archive_feedA critical reading and primary source reinterpretation of documents that contributed to John Hendrix’s The Mythmakers.
Love, Grief, and Alliterative Verse in Tolkien's Legendarium
Aug. 8th, 2025 07:38 amswg_archive_feedPresented at Mereth Aderthad 2025, this paper considers how the themes of love and grief run parallel throughout The Silmarillion and are central to Tolkien's imagination. Also central is alliterative verse, and the paper discusses Tolkien's use of alliterative verse in the legendarium, his literary and scholarly influences, and his professional interest in alliterative verse. The paper draws parallels between alliterative verse in the legendarium and in the English literary tradition, making the case that alliterative verse was used in-universe by the Elves. Finally, the paper uses this evidence to advocate for fanworks that use alliterative verse.