Please understand that I hold Professor Tolkien and all his work in the highest respect. What follows is fanfiction. It is a creation based upon the work of another- upon the copyrighted work of another. I have neither copyright nor claim to the the worlds, characters, events, or any other aspect of the creative work upon which this stuff is based; I am not making any kind of profit off this, neither do I intend to, nor have I the slightest claim to such rights.
That having been disclaimed, here's what I've got so far.
The One Thousand Word Silmarillion
Er... yes. Almost exactly what it sounds like. I've re-read the Silmarillion more times than I can count; I've a fondness for wordy mythology, sometimes. One day in March 2004 I found myself thinking, "Vast tracts of this book can be summed up by saying 'oooh, SHINY!'."
It went downhill from there. Became quite popular, apparently - links to the original posting of this turned up in a number of blogs, including BoingBoing, and suddenly people were commenting on it like crazy. I posted this thing to my livejournal on 1 April 2004. By 25 April it was all over the place. I'm not objecting, mind you- I just never expected it to catch on the way it did. Presenting the one-thousand-word summary of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion.
Let me know what you think, and let me know if you want to post it to a fansite or translate it or something, all right? I like to know where my work's gone.
Now, it's worth noting that a few people were still a little boggled by trying to follow the events of the Silmarillion when all they had to contend with was a thousand words. I've done two other summaries, which you may find of interest.
The Really Really Really Short Version: 393 words. All five sections of the Silmarillion. I'd say 'I'm so going to Hell for this', but since there's no Hell in Arda, I figure I'm gonna be eaten by a Balrog.
The Long Version - 2,060 words. I actually did this first, in February of 2004. Alas, this only covers the Ainulindale and the Quenta Silmarillion. Nevertheless, a number of people have expressed fondness for it. I think this may have to do with the fact that it includes the line 'Carcharoth bit off Beren's hand with the jewel in and got his INSIDES BURNINATED.' It's in the form of a discussion between myself and several friends, who had not read the Silm as of the time this was written.
Tales of the Sixth Age
Tolkien's Middle-earth was presented as a sort of alternate pre-history for Europe, or at least something very like it. In 1958, Tolkien wrote that we were living in the end of the Sixth Age, or possibly the beginning of the Seventh. I found myself thinking about that, and thinking about the possibilities that might emerge if Middle-earth did not turn into the world as we know it, but evolved along somewhat parallel lines into a nonetheless different world. So far, this has resulted in three ficlets- no more than a thousand words each- set in the late Sixth Age.
Disguises - Welcome to Tiryat University's Museum of Antiquities. Your guide today is Sulen Tolfarsson, the daughter of a University steward with a passion for the past.
Will - When Sulen was nine years old, something happened to her father Amrin in the Museum of Antiquities. Something involving an ancient stone...
Deepsinger - Five years into Sulen's voyages of marine exploration, a great discovery is made beneath the seas.