History Became Legend... Or Cool Things You Forgot Existed On The SWG: The Library of Tirion

[angelica_ramses]

Back in the early 2000s, in the heyday of the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy and the exponential growth of the Tolkien fandom, there were Silmfics. Writers who wrote Silmarillion stories made up a tiny fraction of that huge fandom and they posted their work either in FanFiction.net, took up a corner in Henneth Annun Story Archive or in the number of small archives that were constantly being created. There was also Silmfics, a Yahoo group where, well, Silmarillion writers (505 of them) posted their stories, discussed finer points of canon ("Why is Celegorm called "the Fair"?, shared gems that they had discovered in the volumes of the History of Middle-earth ("What's this issue with the Feanorian pronunciation?") and generally interacted. Then, around 2005/6 the activities in the Yahoo group started slowing down until it finally died out as that generation of Silmfic writers left the Tolkien fandom - just as the SWG was being born. When our Story Archive opened in 2007, their names were almost unknown to the flow of newcomers who joined the fandom and many of their stories, though still accesible, were slowly being forgotten. So in 2010, we thought it was a good time to look back on those authors and we asked our members, especially those who had been around longer, to suggest names of writers they had enjoyed back then in order to try to contact them. Most of the people contacted, responded and all of those joined in this project which we called the Library of Tirion . There you will find a selection of stories which their authors considered their favourite or most representative productions. Even better, some of these authors rediscovered their old love and started writing Silmfics again!

Just to get a glimpse of the wealth of creativity collected there why not read Tetha's humorous take on Gondolin and its denizens? Lipstick's Maedhros and Maglor roaming about 21th century Britain? Or Deborah Judge's As Little Might Be Thought, about -what else?- Elrond, Elros and their unusual upbringing? Finch's version of that classic love story, Maedhros and Fingon? Ivanneth's telling of their first meeting in Valinor? Aegnor and Andreth? Gil-galad's parentage? Tar-Miriel's fate? Celeborn and Galadriel's romance? Finrod meeting Men? Maglor's encounter with Dante Allighieri? Lieutenant Beowulf? The list goes on...


The Library of Tirion is definitely not a closed project so if you would like to help out with suggestions or contacts, don't hesitate to contact us.

Comments

[jenni_blog]

This is awesome. I didn't know about the Library of Tirion, so I'm very glad that you posted such a detailed account of it. I got very nostalgic about some of these wonderful authors and their stories which I read so long ago. I will certainly be visiting Library of Tirion to read more of the stories. Thanks for this!

[angelica_ramses]

It's great that you've discovered the Library of Tirion! :D

There are some of these stories that are still among my all time favourites. Nostalgia and the fear that they would be lost and forgotten drove me into this project back in 2010. I hope you enjoy - again!

[jenni_blog]

Thank you, I'm sure I will enjoy them again (and new ones too). :)

[oloriel]

I had no clue that Ivanneth's The Follower was on SWG now - and that she had added two chapters since I last read it! So thank you for the heads up! I'm sure there are loads of other treasures I missed, and it'll be great to catch up with them!

[angelica_ramses]

Finding Ivanneth was not easy but once we contacted her, not only did she agree to post The Follower with us but, she added chapters that had been sleeping in her hard drive for years. It is still one of my favourite Mae/Fin stories and a great pleasure to read. And yes, there are a lot of wonderful stories. Enjoy!