#swg challenge

[silmalope]

Laughter and Mourning, the daughters of Húrin. (Originally posted on the SWG for the Orctober challenge prompt “eyes”.)

[silmarillionwritersguild]

On March 14, 2005, the SWG arrived in the small hours of the morning. It was still in very embryonic form, actualized only as a Yahoo! Group with no members and a series of very cringey posts on Dawn's LiveJournal (she had no idea how LiveJournal worked, having joined just that day to post these cringey posts in her insomnia-fueled effort to launch the SWG).

Twenty years later, this challenge debuted in recognition of two full decades of existence of the SWG. Each day, we will post an event that is an important hashmark on the timeline of the SWG's history along with three prompts that (at least in the challenge mods' mind) are associated with that event: a single word, a snippet of poetry (with a link to the full poem), and a public domain image. As always, you can use any aspect of the prompt to inspire your fanwork, including fragments of prompts or parts of the poem not included on the challenge page. The history snippets are fair game as prompts. You do not have to create or share your response on the day a prompt is posted. You can go back to past prompts, and you can stitch prompts from different days together into fanworks in cool and bizarre ways.

You can find challenge prompts for Birthday Bash here.

In order to receive a stamp for your fanwork, your response must be posted to the archive on or before 25 April 2025. (Note that this extends the challenge past the usual deadline of the 15th so that those who wish to create for the later prompts in the challenge have the opportunity to do so!) For complete challenge guidelines, see the Challenges page on our website.

[starspray]

Anticipatory Grief

Summary: Dear Elrond, It feels a little silly to be writing this to you while you are sleeping right next to me, but I cannot sleep.

Major Characters: Elrond, Elros

Major Relationships: Elrond & Elros

Genre: Family, General

Rating: General

Note: Written for the Dark Matter challenge for the anti-prompts: Dark is evil, the word “mortal”, third person POV

[cilil]

Tengwar

AN: For @sauron-kraut🖤

✍ Prompt: Malta (gold) - Mairon x Nazgûl ✍ Synopsis: Mairon has become a king of kings. ✍ Warnings: / ✍ Drabble ✍ SWG archive

Rings of gold gleam against their skin, like wedding bands promising an eternal union. 

Like golden collars around the necks of beasts lounging at the feet of a king. 

Their eyes are all on him.

Mairon radiates the eternal life and beauty they desire so much, appearing almost like a spectre of gold and fire. When he lifts his hand and beckons them, many rings gleam in the twilight. 

Once-proud kings falling to their knees, lips pressed reverently against immortal golden skin. Whispered words of worship, breath frozen in time. 

Mairon accepts their affection, and in his heart he laughs. 

Thanks for reading! ♡

taglist: @angbangbaby @a-world-of-whimsy-5 @blauerregen @bluezenzennie @destinyeternity1 @edensrose @elanna-elrondiel @eunoiaastralwings @i-did-not-mean-to @just-little-human @melkors-big-tits @melkors-defense-attorney @saintstars @sauron-kraut @urwendii @wandererindreams

[elronds-library]

King of beech and oak and elm

by polutropos (@polutrope)

Elu traced the lines of a blossom of niphredil, which had bloomed beneath her feet even before she could walk. Thingol remembers Lúthien while contemplating the wall reliefs of Menegroth.

General, No Archive Warnings

Words: 1,447

[slightnettles]

For the @silmarillionwritersguild Jubilee > Potluck Bingo > Elleth's Femslash & Lyrics board > column B, five exact drabbles. CW: possible incest (not explicit) + shamefully literal interpretation of prompts.

I've left signs but you take no notice

Míriel will not return, will not stand in the flesh before Indis again. Not to shame her, as her son is wont to do, for having taken her place in Finwë’s house; nor to speak her love.

Only the thousand treacheries of thread and fabric remain: a tear in Indis’s favourite gown, and the pricking of her needle against her thumb, the blooming of blood on linen, and a red blotch in the shape of Míriel’s profile; the sudden snagging of a ribbon around Indis’s wrist, tightening to a bond; the soft, caressing tangling of her sheets about her thighs.

Say that the wind won't change on us

Nienor climbs first, bare feet braced against the trunk, swift and bold, and Nellas climbs after her, eyes flitting ever upwards. Soon Nienor sits astride a bough, head drawn back in delight, braided hair gold against the grey sky. Wind blows, and leaves rustle loudly. Nienor draws Nellas to sit close beside her.

‘You must not forget this,’ says Nellas, leaning into her warmth.

‘O Elves whose memory is ever living!’ says Nienor, laughing. Pressing a kiss to Nellas’s mouth, she says: ‘But I shan’t.’

Perhaps not - and yet her brother did, thinks Nellas; and leaves scatter in the wind.

If I was Atlantis and you were the sea

She loathes it, loves it; then, at sixteen, she sees it for the first time.

It is wide, grey, bleak; some day all Númenor shall be hers, but not this. It comes lapping at her feet, a cold-tongued hound; she yells in affront, rips up a sheaf - sceptre, whip - of marram grass, lashes the sea. ‘Thief!’ Of a father’s presence, a mother’s happiness.

A wave comes, foam-tipped, and enfolds her. It is so cold she cannot breathe, then so warm between her legs she grows weak-kneed. In the water there is a woman’s face, grey-green, hair-wreathed; it laughs at her.

When we die we will die with our arms unbound

Another might have listened to the worm’s lies, gone hunting after phantoms.

But she is Húrin’s daughter, axe-wielding, a captain of Nargothrond. She runs back to where captives are being led away. Finduilas is among them, in chains; so she leaps, runs the harder.

They meet in the midst of battle. When they kiss, open-mouthed and harsh, their teeth clash and Nienor tastes blood - Finduilas’s, her own. It makes no difference; the Orcs are too many. Finduilas, now freed, hefts an Orkish spear; Nienor lifts her axe. They shall not live long now - but side by side, at the last.

Now three of us here lie

Summer, then autumn, falling to coldness all of a sudden, to frost upon the leaves and on the grass of a morning. To Aerin it feels too early still to light fires, a waste of wood. Instead the three of them share a bed, under heaps of blankets. They speak little; Morwen is ever more silent, and already Rían’s eyes stray ever northwards.

Still they draw together. Their hands entwine; sometimes their limbs. Morwen’s fingers are firm on Aerin’s wrist as she guides her down; Rían’s breath hot and damp against her neck. Stolen warmth, as an east wind blows.

[elennalore]

Chapters: 1/? Fandom: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Celebrimbor/Sauron (Tolkien) Characters: Celebrimbor (Tolkien), Sauron (Tolkien) Additional Tags: Hurt No Comfort, Whump, Hurt/Comfort, Torture, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Poison, Secrets, Interrogation, Ost-in-Edhil (Tolkien), Past Annatar/Celebrimbor (Tolkien), Poor Celebrimbor (Tolkien), Second Age of Arda (Tolkien), Canon-Typical Violence, Captivity Summary:

Sauron has taken Celebrimbor as a prisoner in Ost-in-Edhil. Whump happens.

A part of SWG Potluck Challenge, first posted on SWG: https://www.silmarillionwritersguild.org/node/7936

[hhimring]

Hitchhiking in Beleriand (a haiku)

Don't even bother  panicking. Run! Not that way! Any way but north.

Written for the prompt: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams

For the current SWG Challenge Funky 70s (linked)

[dawnfelagund]

I wrote this article for my monthly Tolkien fandom studies column, Cultus Dispatches as part of the OTW's "ten things about fandom" challenge for International Fanworks Day. Normally, my Cultus column begins with a gnarly soup of data, and I often don't even know what (if anything!) will come out of analyzing it. This month, due to the relative lack of data, I thought I was giving myself an easy month of writing. I just needed to come up with ten things, right?? Ha! I think this might be the most challenging article I've written for this column to date.

Here are some fun facts I learned while researching these 10 Important Moments in Tolkien Fanfic History:

Tolkien fanfic is older than Star Trek fanfic.

The first known Tolkien fanfic was an alternate-history Sauron redemption fic.

The first Tolkien fanfic archive was a slash archive.

Three out of four archives opened after the LotR films left theaters used the eFiction open-source script.

The first Angbang story was posted in 2002 (though it wasn't called Angbang yet).

Want to know more? Go read the article! And I'd love to hear what I didn't include that you'd add to your own list. (Or if you make your own list, let me know!)

Many, many thanks to all of the people who talked with me about their work for this article and to those involved in the discussion on the SWG Discord's #fandom-studies channel about this topic.

[i-did-not-mean-to]

Thank you so much for the tag @elentarial 💖💖💖

Let me give you a snippet from my monthly challenge for SWG that I shall post as soon as it's reread and I've gathered the courage to brave the interface...

Aredhel scoffed in disbelief as she flicked a finger against the meticulously straightened and styled hair of her colleague—usually, Haleth threw her shoulder-length hair up into a more or less tidy bun, but today, she had apparently found it necessary to make an effort. “He’s still got that power, huh?” Aredhel mocked, pointedly ignoring the fact that she was also wearing her best black pantsuit as if she was going to a formal funeral rather than to a preliminary interrogation. Cheap paper cups were rolled and squeezed nervously between sweaty palms as they walked up to the house which looked surprisingly like a huge, many-eyed beast, coiled and ready to spring upon them unexpectedly. “Have you ever been here before? Inside, I mean?” Aredhel asked, resenting the fact that she couldn’t stop babbling as if the weighty silence surrounding the bizarre structure—transformed, expanded, and renovated once too often—was too heavy to bear. “No,” Haleth replied between two tiny, nervous sips of her coffee. “I’ve met the man in the wilderness, so to say—I’ve inadvertently stumbled into his usual hunting grounds. We’ve never made it to the point where he’d invite me to his hereditary estate.” “Do you know the others?” Crushing the by-now empty container between her twitching fingers, Haleth shrugged half-heartedly. “I know of them,” she said vaguely. “I’d want to say ‘as a woman’, but let me amend, as a living, breathing, seeing person, I am aware of them…but no, I’ve never been formally introduced. You?” “Our mothers were friends,” Aredhel mumbled without taking her eyes off the house as they crept towards it warily. “I have not been here in many years though. Brace yourself then—they are strange.” Her hand trembled just the tiniest bit as she raised it to let her fist fall against the heavy oaken door—before she could knock though, the door swung open, and a beautifully melancholic smile appeared.

Hehehe...I don't know if this is giving any kind of info but...it's a crime ficlet :)

Lots of love...

Let me tag @cilil, @lordoftherazzles, @scyllas-revenge, and @legolasbadass to get the ball rolling in different corners :D

WIP Sunday

@leucisticpuffin tagged me to share a WIP from my folder. I have so many. This is an excerpt from a fic set in All the Pretty Horses universe with Maedhros and the OFC, Sirvrethil. It’s NSFW and uses some crude language, so CW: Explicit Content

“There is something peculiar about that healer,” Maglor remarked, curling his lip. “She is oddly invested in our brother.”

Celegorm, who had arrived at Himring just that morning with the intention of hunting wolves, stared at his older brother with a mixture of amusement and thinly veiled annoyance.

“I hope she fucks him senseless, and then perhaps he will sleep and we all can stop with this nervous anticipation of when another of his moods will take him.”

Maglor sputtered, utterly lost for words; that was not an inconsiderable feat given his flair for the dramatic and storytelling.

“But brother! She is of Thingol’s folk, the same Thingol who placed a ban on our father’s language!”

Celegorm rolled his eyes, “I am certain a wet cunt does not speak Quenya or Sindarin. Would you rather he continue to pine over our cousin? And besides,” he continued with a too sharp grin, “Moryo never said what type of healing she specialized in when he brought her here.”

Maglor offered a blank look, suggesting that he did not understand or was going to pretend that he did not. 

“It is no wonder that your wife remained in Tirion,” his younger brother snapped.  ��You cannot tell me that your blood never ran hot and put you in a foul mood. Let Nelyo be. The worst that she could do is make him a father.”

I (no pressure) tag @last-capy-hupping @curanthir @i-did-not-mean-to 😁

[independence1776]

-whispers curiously- SWG?

The Silmarillion Writers' Guild! It's a Tolkien fandom archive, focused primarily on the Silmarillion but in recent years has a non-Silmarillion subarchive. It accepts all kinds of fanworks: fic, art, podfic, meta, etc. Fanworks do not have content or rating restrictions, save for no explicit art due to webhost requirements. There is a reference section and weekly newsletter. There is also an associated Discord server.

There are monthly challenges in a variety of formats and themes. They are always available for use, even after the challenge officially closes.

Beyond the Silmarillion is the subarchive for fanworks based on the rest of Tolkien’s works, including the non-Middle-earth stories like Roverandom and adaptations such as the movies or show. To post in this subarchive, you must first have on SWG either a minimum of five fanworks or 10,000 words of writing, whichever is reached first.

The SWG was started by @dawnfelagund in 2005 and the original version of the archive opened on eFiction in 2007. It is my Tolkien fandom home.

[silmalope]

sisters vinyamar and gondolin, inspired by Elleth’s lovely “places as characters” prompts for the SWG potluck :)

Originally posted on the SWG here.

[silmarillionwritersguild]

Tolkien's legendarium, with its roots in medieval Europe, displays all the royal drama of history: arguments over succession, regicide, kidnapping, and secret kings dashing back at the heroic last minute to rise to greatness. (Yeah you, Aragorn!) Amidst this royal rumble are kings and queens simply doing the job they were born to do. The annals of Middle-earth are filled with rulers who improved (even saved!) their people's lives, turned their realms into a disaster zone, or—most commonly—simply disappeared into the pages of history.

This month, we challenge you to create a fanwork about a king or queen in the legendarium, whether dramatic or dull, brilliant or disastrous, renowned or forgotten. Below, you will find a list of kings and queens listed in the indices of The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings. Note that this list is not exhaustive, and you are welcome to create fanworks about kings and queens not listed. In some cases, it may be questionable whether a character counts as a king or queen, and if you decide they do, we trust your judgment. Fanworks about kings and queens who are textual ghosts or original characters are welcome as well. Finally, remember that the "Silmarillion" is much more than just the First Age. If you're not sure if a Third Age idea would fit on our site, our FAQ on "Silmworks" is here.

Because this challenge falls during Akallabêth in August, there will be a special stamp for anyone who creates a fanwork set during the Second Age.

Thanks go to Zdenka for this month's lovely banner and stamps!

In order to receive a stamp for your fanwork, your response must be posted to the archive on or before 15 September 2024. For complete challenge guidelines, see the Challenges page on our website.

You can find the list of kings and queens for this challenge and fanworks created for the Kings & Queens challenge here.

[starspray]

Suddenly and Unexpectedly

Written for the Potluck Bingo challenge, for the Hopeful Bingo prompt: the longed-for that cometh beyond hope

Summary:

After a few minutes, though, he heard an answering voice. He looked up, falling silent. That had sounded like—but no, it couldn’t be. Eärendil saw movement on the path again, just the top of someone’s dark head coming up the last slope toward the tower. As whoever it was drew farther up the hill, more became visible, and Eärendil abandoned his flower weaving and scrambled upright, bare feet slipping over the stones as the grass and daisies tumbled over the cliff side down into the water below. 

Major Characters: Eärendil, Turgon

Major Relationships: Eärendil & Turgon

Genre: Family, General

Challenges: Potluck Bingo

Rating: General

[cilil]

It comes in Threes

✍ Prompt: Ages of captivity + the Fëanturi | Melkor, Námo, Irmo & Nienna ✍ Synopsis: During three ages of captivity, Melkor is visited by all three Fëanturi siblings. ✍ Warnings: / ✍ Triple drabble ✍ SWG archive

Námo is the first to visit him, unsurprisingly — it's his halls Melkor is trapped in, after all. 

He expects him to relay his brother's flimsy excuses or lecture him on laws and morals, but the Judge is silent. All he does is check on him and linger, as if he's quietly offering his companionship and wisdom. 

Melkor meets his silence with his own, proud and stubborn. He cares little about whatever Námo has to offer, feeling cheated and betrayed by his own kin.

The law is meaningless to him, and fate can be changed. 

He greets Námo with mocking smiles. 

Irmo appears even before his sorrowful sister does, and Melkor envies him for how easily he enters and exits his brother's halls, as if Námo's spells bend to his every will and whim. 

And perhaps they do — Irmo has always been his one weakness. 

To Melkor's surprise, he doesn't attempt to scold or preach; rather he seems curious and asks him questions. 

The fallen Vala lies and evades some, of course, but he deigns to engage Irmo in conversation.

"Why do you ask?" he inquires nevertheless, and the Fëantur smiles mildly. 

"I want to understand, and I know I can."

Nienna visits him last, and as predictable and inevitable as it seems to him, Melkor finds that he harbours no ill will towards her. 

She is perhaps the only one he cares to see, and this time he is the one to speak first. 

"How is it that you still defend me," he wonders, "even though everyone is of the opinion that I am the cause of every single tear you shed?" 

"Because you too deserve compassion, and I was never angry with you," Nienna answers.  "For I know well that, to cause such hurt, you yourself must be hurting.”

Thanks for reading! ♡

taglist: @angbangbaby @asianbutnotjapanese @a-world-of-whimsy-5 @bluezenzennie @edensrose @eunoiaastralwings @i-did-not-mean-to @melkors-big-tits @melkors-defense-attorney @singleteapot @stormchaser819 @urwendii @wandererindreams

[laisrinel]

Masterlist

Silmarillion Fandom Events 2025

Slowly starting to make a list of public events for the next year...

> Masterlist 2025 Updated < (for reblogs) Last update : 23 march 2025

other years : 2023 and past by arofili - 2024

Disclaimer : I only tag NSFW or 18+ those which are clearly indicated like this. For further informations go check everyone warnings.

January

♣ Jubilee (1 january - 15 february) by silmarillionwritersguild : trying an old swg challenge.

♣ Arafinweanweek (5 january - 11 january) : finarfin's family content

running along : MySlashyValentine, Potluck Bingo

February

♣ Valentine Event (1 february - 14 february) : dtiys or fics content on some couples.

♣ Femslashfebruary NSFW? (1 february - 28 february) : female slash content.

♣ Resolution by teitho (1 february - 31 march) : taking up new resolutions content.

♣ Maedhrosmaglorweek (16 february - 22 february) : maedhros and maglor's relationship content.

running along : MySlashyValentine, Jubilee

March

♣ Back to Middle-Earth Month (1 march- 31 march) by spring-of-arda : prompts for every day of March.

♣ March-of-the-quendi (1 march - 31 march) : elves travelling from Cuineven to Valinor content.

♣ Mothers by teitho (1 march - 30 april) : mothers relationships content.

♣ Rare pair bingo NSFW (1 march - 30 april) by tolkienpinupcalendar : rare ship content.

♣ cnc-week (16 march - 23 march) : celegorm and curufin relationship content

♣ tolkienekphrasisweek (17 march - 17 june) : prompt based ekphrasis content

♣ Tolkienrsb (22 march - september) : exchanges between artists and writers.

♣ Feanorianweek (24 march - 30 march) : Feanor's family content

♣ neurodivergent-arda-week (30 march - 5 april) : neurodivergent characters content.

running along : Resolution

April

♣ Celedrielweek (6 april - 12 april) : Galadriel and Celeborn relationship content.

♣ Silmarillionepistolary (14 april - 20 april) : in-universe letters

Running along : neurodivergent-arda-week

May

♣ Angbangweek (5 may - 11 may) : Morgoth and Sauron relationship content.

♣ numenorweek (26 may - 1 june) : Numenor content

June

♣ Celebrimborweek (9 june - 15 june) by the-southlands : Celebrimbor content

♣ Tolkien south asian week (16 june - 22 june) by arwenindomiel : south asian related content.

♣ jrrt-native-languages-fest (16 june - 22 june) : being proud about every native language !

♣ russingon-week (16 june - 22 june) : fingon and maedhros relationship content

July

♣ Esotolkienweek (12 july - 19 july) : esotheric and obscure content in the legendarium

August

September

October

November

December