Silmarillion Writers' Guild

Almost since the SWG's beginning, we have run a mostly unofficial event each year called Akallabêth in August. This event started at a time when Second Age fanworks were relatively uncommon and sought to encourage not only their creation but support of the authors writing, drawing, and making them.

This year, for our very first Themed Collection, Himring has put together a collection of fanfiction and fanart for Akallabêth in August that focuses on the three ruling queens of Númenor: Tar-Ancalimë, Tar-Telperiën, and Tar-Vanimeldë. As Himring points out, the bar to writing about the ruling queens is set somewhat high, as most of the information about them is in Unfinished Tales. However, she points out, they offer fertile territory for writing about women who hold power—who are not exactly common in Tolkien's books—while the dearth of information about them allows fans to increase the diversity of Arda by representing the queens as people of color or LGBTQ+.

Our themed collections are not intended to be definitive in any way but to offer a jumping-off point for fanworks about a specific topic. Himring has shared links to eleven brilliant stories and works of art about the ruling queens, but we hope you will also share your favorites as a comment on the collection!

You can check out the fanworks in "The Ruling Queens of Númenor" (and add your own!) here.

Note that this is a new column in the newsletter, and we hope that Himring taking the brave first step to share a collection will inspire others to put together some of their favorite fanworks about a beloved topic. Check out our call for contributors if you'd like to put together a collection of your own!