I decided it would be tempting fate to post a link to my Back to Middle-Earth Month 2011 passport before the month was over - I really hoped I was going to manage every day's challenge but didn't want to commit myself! So I've been keeping this entry under wraps till the challenge was completed and the mods had had time to update all the stamps... ( Read more... )

Today's Challenge:
"Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain." - Friedrich Schiller. Write a story or poem or create artwork that illustrates this quotation.

Rather to my amazement, this one fits with the place for today's challenge as well - Valinor!  And for once no Kleenex required! This would come somewhere around the middle of the ( Read more... )

Today's Challenge: "You can never go home again, but the truth is you can never leave home, so it's all right." --Maya Angelou
Write a story or poem, or create a piece of art on the theme of leaving or returning home.

Then World Behind and Home Ahead

At last, when they think themselves forever lost, it happens. Gimli wakes one night with a sudden ( Read more... )

Today in our trip, we approach MORDOR. The challenge is: "Darkness is only driven out with light, not more darkness." --Martin Luther King, Jr.  Write a story or poem or create artwork where your character battles and overcomes their darkest hour.

Diving in to post this while LJ briefly appears to be up, since it's spent all day behaving like an ( Read more... )

Today's Challenge:
There was no avoiding it; the letter had to be composed...
Write a story or poem inspired by this line (you do not need to use the exact quote)

This would fit in back towards the beginning of the sequence, probably before Day Eight:

Farewell They Bade to their Free People
“I, Gimli Glóinsson Gróinsson, Lord of Aglarond, being of sound ( Read more... )

Today's Challenge: Write a story or poem, or create a piece of art where your character rises above themselves to follow their dreams.

This would come just before Day 24:

Let Them a Journey New Begin

Over many years, by letter and face-to-face, the conversation’s repeated. Thranduil will not abandon his people; Celeborn argues that they need neither ( Read more... )

Arrrgh, I am so behind...

Today's Challenge:
"Pride is still aiming at the best houses: Men would be angels, angels would be gods. Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell; aspiring to be angels men rebel."
--Alexander Pope

How would a character not allowed to express his or her thoughts, creativity, or opinion act out?

There Hammer on the Anvil Smote

His ( Read more... )

Today's Challenge:
She knelt on the floor, carefully picking up the shards of glass. Why did it have to be this one that broke?

Long Ago They Sailed Away

She knelt on the floor, carefully picking up the shards of glass. Why did it have to be this one that broke?  Of all the nursery items long-packed-away, brought out for each new royal generation?

Her ( Read more... )

Today's Challenge:
Write a story or poem or create artwork using one or more animals as symbols, omens, or metaphors.

(I was stuck until I decided 'animals' was allowed to include birds...)

Set many years after Day 21's Across So Wide a Sea, this will almost certainly be the last one in the series, I think:

Under a Swift Sunrise

When he ( Read more... )

Today's Challenge: Everyone avoided the tower. It was believed to have ...
Write a story or poem that starts with this line or create a piece of art that reflects this line.

This nearly did for me, I should just like to point out! - had I not already covered Dol Guldur, which is the place associated with today's challenge, it would have been easier, ( Read more... )