Admin Post: SWG Challenge | Competition | May 15 - June 10

[dawn_felagund]

The history of Arda is fraught with contests and competition. Sometimes, competition can literally shape the fate of the universe, as when Melkor’s music contends with the themes introduced by Ilúvatar. Sometimes, something as petty as sibling rivalry can have far-reaching consequences, as Fëanor’s strife with his half-brothers shows. Sometimes, competition can turn into a matter of life and death, as in the case of Maeglin. Sometimes, competition can be as dramatic as Finrod’s musical duel with Sauron and as deadly as Saeros’ needling of Túrin. Sometimes, people end up in ousting a competitor that they did not even know about, as when Beren beats Daeron to Lúthien’s love. Consciously or unconsciously, all characters vie for something - be it love or power, attention or freedom, treasure or acceptance, artistic expression or survival.

But of course, competing against others can also be an entertaining pastime. According to some sources, Galadriel was a champion swimmer and athlete in her youth in Valinor, so it appears that Elves know competitive sports. There may have been musical or artistic contests among the peoples of Arda in times of peace and prosperity, or tournaments and other competitive demonstrations of military prowess in times of war.

This month’s challenge invites you to take a look at competitions - serious or silly, spectacular or anti-climactic. And because May is the month when the members of the European Broadcasting Union meet to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest, this challenge’s prompts will be past entries from the ESC. You can use any part of the prompt that inspires you - the mood, part of the lyrics, elements of the performance or whatever else tickles your muses.

Challenge responses must be posted to the SWG archive by June 10 to be eligible for a stamp. Most of the songs we have chosen are sung in English; however, we have also collected a few songs in other languages for the brave, bold or bilingual. If you'd like to receive a prompt in another language, list other languages you'd be interested in. We can't guarantee we will have all languages, but if we do, we'll do our best to honor your request. (And if you're willing to take a chance on anything, feel free to encourage us to surprise you!)

If you wish to participate in this month's challenge, leave a comment here or LiveJournal, drop us an ask on our tumblr, or email us at moderator@silmarillionwritersguild.org. We will send your prompt to you as soon as possible.

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Some housekeeping notes: First of all, I want to thank Lyra (oloriel), who does more behind the scenes for these challenges than most participants probably realize. Not only does she make the majority of the stamps--often with her own beautiful artwork!--she finds most of the prompts and designed this entire challenge. If you have enjoyed the prompts this year or the stamps, please give Lyra a shout out! (Maybe by commenting on her work--she's also a generous challenger and currently leads the site for the most 2018 challenge comments left! Her stories are here, and her art is here.) Thank you, Lyra!

All stamp collections are updated as of Saturday. If you've commented on challenge stories since then, I'll catch your stamp in the next round. Please check your stamp collection to make sure I've added everything you've earned, and let me know if something is missing. Especially for Rise Above, there were a lot of available stamps for creators, and it's possible I've overlooked a few that were earned.

Creator stamps available for the Rise Above challenge were as follows:

• Fanwork creator


• Fanwork with a major female character


• Fanwork featuring a woman practicing science (please note that "science" is loosely defined and includes more than the hard sciences)


• Fanwork that incorporated a Legendarium Ladies April prompt


• Poetry or a fanwork that includes a poem

And commenter stamps are, as always, available in increments of five comments left per challenge.

Going forward, I will be monitoring new comments on the Middle-earth Museum and Rise Above challenges. If you comment on another 2017 or 2018 challenge and need the stamp for it, please contact me to let me know. I'm always reachable at moderator@silmarillionwritersguild.org or through any of my/our social media.

Finally, SWG members Raiyana and Narya are running a reverse big bang, the Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang. We always encourage our challenge participants to feel free to combine our challenges with other challenges, and we want TRSB to be no exception! Therefore, if your TRSB fanwork incorporates one (or more?) of our challenges, we will be suspending the usual due dates for collecting stamps for those challenges, since TRSB fanworks will not be posted until late August. Simply contact us when your fanwork is up on the archive and let us know what stamps you need. (And yes, there will be a special stamp for TRSB participants!)