From Fan History Wiki

[edit] Introduction

The Silmarillion Writers' Guild (SWG) was founded March 15, 2005 by Dawn Felagund. At the time, Silmarillion fans had few places online to hold discussions and share their writing outside of general Tolkien sites and archives, which were dominated by fans of the Lord of the Rings and gave very little time and attention to Tolkien's other works. At the same time, the Silmarillion fandom was experiencing something of a "changing of the guard," as the fans who had established the fandom online were losing interest and participating less and less [1]. New Silmarillion fans, then, were often left without much of a place to go. The SWG was created to remedy both of these issues, giving fans and authors of stories about Tolkien's early history a place to call their own that would hopefully weather the normal cycles of fandom attrition.

[edit] The Archivists

Dawn Felagund is the founder and owner of the Silmarillion Writers' Guild. She manages the site and all affiliated groups with the help of a volunteer staff, including co-moderators ford_of_bruinen, digdigil, Tárion Anaróre, and Rhapsody the Bard.

[edit] Archive Policies

The Silmarillion Writers' Guild was founded with a number of goals in mind:

To provide an online home for Silmarillion-only writing and scholarship.
To create a supportive environment where friendliness and diplomacy are the norm, not drama and other unpleasantness. The SWG has always aimed to be a group where authors are comfortable sharing their writing and getting feedback without worry of being abused and flamed by readers and reviewers. The SWG has never maintained any "standards of quality" or implemented any review system for its authors.
To provide the means for writers to improve their craft if they wish to do so through critical feedback and a comprehensive selection of references on writing.
To foster creative and critical discussions of canon, recognizing that there is no correct way to view the canon of The Silmarillion, and encouraging the expression and discussion of a wide variety of canonical views. As part of this goal, the SWG aims to create a reliable and extensive reference library with essays on all aspects of J.R.R. Tolkien's canon.

As expressed in the SWG Site Etiquette and TOS, members, authors, readers, and reviewers on the SWG are held to a high degree of accountability for their behavior and actions within the group. "Flames" are strictly forbidden, as is abusive behavior of any kind [2].

From its inception, the SWG has also valued inclusivness. Founded at a time when many Tolkien archives focused on archiving only quality writing or certain kinds of stories, often to the detriment of authors with experimental styles or atypical views of canon, the SWG has always accepted all Silmarillion-based writing, regardless of its genre, rating, style, canonical interpretation, or "quality."

[edit] Archive History

[edit] 2005

March 14. The Silmarillion Writers' Guild is founded by Dawn Felagund on Yahoo! Groups and LiveJournal.
July 27. Dawn Felagund and ford_of_bruinen begin recruiting members.
July 28. ford_of_bruinen is appointed as a co-moderator.
September. SWG begins putting out a month newsletter and challenge [3].

[edit] 2006

January 5. Discussion begins on the Yahoo! list about creating an archive for Silmarillion-based writing, coded so that contributors can add and edit their own work [4].
June 12. digdigil is appointed as a co-moderator.

[edit] 2007

April 1. The SWG website is released to the public [5].
May. Beta-testing of the archive is conducted by SWG moderators and volunteers [6].
May 23. Tárion Anaróre is appointed as a co-moderator.
June 6. The SWG archive is opened for public contributions, making it the first Silmarillion-only archive on the Internet [7].
July. The SWG honors the House of Fëanor with the Seven in '07 project, a compilation of fanworks about the Fëanorians.
September 15. In honor of the 30th anniversary of the publication of The Silmarillion, SWG hosts a writing contest.
September 25. Rhapsody the Bard is appointed as a co-moderator.

[edit] 2008

March. In honor of the fandom holiday Back to Middle-earth Month, the SWG compiles contributed fanworks for the year's theme The Circles of the World.
June 1. The SWG Yahoo! Group message archive is opened to the public based on a vote by its members.

[edit] Archive Funding

The Silmarillion Writers' Guild is funded entirely by Dawn Felagund. The sites and archive associated with the SWG are maintained by a volunteer staff.