Henneth Annûn Story Archive

Firstly, congratulations to our content manager, Adrienne, aka "Alon": if you weren't here for the announcement this summer, she's getting married very soon.

In honor of this momentous event, I would like to propose the following:

We know lots of characters get married/are married in M-e. But very few have stories written about the moment when one of them went down on his knees (or the M-e equivalent) and asked the scary question, "Will you...?"

You can pick any couple (or presumed couple: I'm thinking of Beregond of Gondor, here from LOTR), but I want to know how the betrothal took place: did she ask? Did he? In front of witnesses? In private? Was it a foregone conclusion? A matter of state?

This is ideally a vignette. Several members have written fics that could fill this challenge, but for those who *haven't*....

Also, I'd like to throw in that although major characters are fine, I'd like major characters whose pledges are not written, i.e., no Aragorn-Arwen on Cerin Amroth.

Takers?

Apologies for confusion: Apparently, I can't keep engagements and marriages straight in my mind. I'm asking for a fic about how the character got the other person to say "Yes, I'll marry you" not necessarily the wedding itself (although this is also good). Some of you still have fics or parts of fics that would work for this challenge, and I'd be glad to see them entered. But I think the betrothal might be the more... shall we say 'revealing' moment of character? So... sorry I confused you. I'll try not to do it again. :-)

 

A good challenge leading up to Valentine's Day, as well.

 

So are you in on it?

 

Just when I've concluded that I need to write the Mary-Sue + Denethor backstory romance in order to figure out something for chapter 1 of CtL (Thanks, Ang. Really.) you spring this on me.

Phooey.

*doubtfully* I suppose I could try writing the Denethor-Finduilas scene. I hadn't quite gotten to the point of thinking about it yet. And it might well change before being integrated into CtL. But yeah, okay, I could try that as a vignette.

How long would you give us? Does it have to be finished before Adrienne's big day?

Celandine

 

Hm. I'm not sure. Does it sound doable to folks in a month? I'm just asking for a vignette scene, here, although if you have something bigger, go ahead and enter it.

 

So are you in on it?

But I've already done it!

I could submit the whole of Chess to the challenge, I suppose...

 

I don't remember the proposal scene.... Am I forgetting? :-S

Just so we're clear--I know Adrienne is getting married, but the challenge I'd like to see is not to write the actual ceremony. It's to write the proposal phase. If the wedding comes soon after and you want to write that in, or you have a fic that includes both, cool. Send it in.

But I had in mind something closer to a vignette proposal scene. Still have takers?

 

Ah! I misread what you meant by:

the moment when they said, "I do"

which implied an account of a marriage ceremony to me.

 

Oops! My bad. I should maybe go edit my initial post so that it's crystal clear that we're talking about a betrothal here.

So... are you still in it? Granted, Faramir and Éowyn's betrothal (or at least, their initial betrothal) is written, are there others you'd do? Tar-Míriel and Ar-Pharazon, perhaps (ew, squick squick, but ooh, interesting)?

Éomer's asking Lothiriel? Pippin asking Diamond? Túrin asking Nienor (I don't recall that being written....)?

Ooh! Bombadil asking Goldberry?

 

Ooh! Bombadil asking Goldberry?

Are you actually trying to drive me insane, or is this just an unintended consequence?!? Anyway, I don't think he proposed and I don't think they're married. Free love, man.

I will have to pass on this one - sadly, since I would have enjoyed it - since I have a handful of very pressing deadlines for the end of the month, and also the Mary Sue story has started to take on a life of its own. And one day I do want to get back to the story Tar-Míriel and Ar-Pharazon, but not as a vignette.

 

Pippin asking Diamond also answers one of the QUickies, so it is a double-duty story!

Ang

PS - Cel, you are *ever* so welcome. ;-)

 

Rules clarification:

My zoo's all involved in an AU. So stuff happens differently. Could I enter a side bar and/or epilog to S&K? I would include a proper reference and spoiler warning. This is also additional impetus to get the scenes I still need to write done in the main story ...

Julie
wondering

 

Well, I've set the challenge up for canonically-paired characters, or characters who are presumed married due to the evidence of acknowledged offspring.

If you want to write a character who isn't canonically married, I'd say work in a situation whereby the character plausibly (in the unwritten portions of canon) asked someone and failed to get a 'yes.'

 

I am writing the scene between Finwe and Indis... I think it might be finished by the end of the week. One question, though, are you looking more for the character's reaction to the question and all those little details that can enlighten our knowledge about them, or would you rather see more about their customs regarding betrothal (exchanging of rings, for instance)? If so, I might have to fix some thing or other, since my fic is not about the betrothal per se, but about 'the moment' when s/he asks.

Interesting challenge Dwim! (as usual, you come up with all these clever ideas!) And, Congratulations Adrienne!!

P.S. That Goldberry thing looks like it could be too interesting...

 

Imagine my delight to confirm what I'd suspected, that Tolkien had already written this one:

From The Adventures of Tom Bombadil:

"Wise old Bombadil, he was a wary fellow;
bright blue his jacket was, and his boots were yellow.
None ever caught old Tom in upland or in dingle,
walking the forest-paths, or by the Withywindle,
or out on the lily-pools in boat upon the water.
But one day Tom, he went and caught the River-daughter,
in green gown, flowing hair, sitting in the rushes,
singing old water-songs to birds upon the bushes.

"He caught her, held her fast! Water-rats went scuttering
reeds hissed, herons cried, and her heart was fluttering.
Said Tom Bombadil: 'Here's my pretty maiden!
You shall come home with me! The table is all laden:
yellow cream, honeycomb, white bread and butter;
roses at the window-sill and peeping round the shutter.
You shall come under Hill! Never mind your mother
in her deep weedy pool: there you'll find no lover!'

"Old Tom Bombadil had a merry wedding,
crowned all with buttercups, hat and feather shedding;
his bride with forgetmenots and flag-lilies for garland
was robed all in silver-green. He sang like a starling,
hummed like a honey-bee, lilted to the fiddle,
clasping his river-maid round her slender middle."

How could any girl refuse an offer like that? "Get yer coat, love, you've pulled." I note he did make supper for her, at least.

 

That was hilarious, Una! Talk about an out-of-the-ordinary proposal! Now I have even more doubts about the identity of Goldberry... what kind of being in Arda could have a fluttering heart while the "water-rats were scuttering"? ...

 

Tee hee! Oh, all right. I surrender! Free(ish) love....

Re: Starlight and what the challenge is looking for. There's no reason why you can't show both. The challenge is focused on the asking, and how the manner of the asking reveals something about the characters involved--so if it's a formal betrothal, you would probably be looking to show how or whether the characters find meaning in that ceremony; whether they'd asked each other earlier and this was sort of a 'just to be official' or whether it was arranged without their knowledge.

Ritual is very important, and how the characters enter into ritual, how they carry it out (by the book, or do they attempt to make it their own, with levity, with solemnity, etc.) says something about them.

Anyhow, have fun with it.

 

Starlight and what the challenge is looking for. There's no reason why you can't show both. The challenge is focused on the asking, and how the manner of the asking reveals something about the characters involved--so if it's a formal betrothal, you would probably be looking to show how or whether the characters find meaning in that ceremony; whether they'd asked each other earlier and this was sort of a 'just to be official' or whether it was arranged without their knowledge.

Ritual is very important, and how the characters enter into ritual, how they carry it out (by the book, or do they attempt to make it their own, with levity, with solemnity, etc.) says something about them.

Anyhow, have fun with it.

Oh, dear, hope I'm all right with mine. It certainly isn't a vignette--in fact, it's a fairly lengthy piece, since it recounts how Imrahil is brought to the necessity of proposing to someone in the first place, the proposal, the negative response, and how he reacts to that. It's actually more about the whole courtship.

Arrrrrrgh! I started writing mine from the description on the list, and never actually looked at the official challenge description, which says one chapter. Oh well, I'll put it up in general for people.

 

I'm keeping mine to the proposal part... I think I've had enouhg of marriages for the time being. But er, I don't suppose anyone would like to beta it? Please? Pretty please?

 

"In honor of Alon's impending marriage, I give you the Betrothed Challenge. Pick any two canonically married (or presumed married--Beregond, Curufin, Lobelia Sackville-Baggins, etc.) characters and write a one chapter tale of how the decision to marry came about. Did he ask her? Did she ask him? Was it a matter of state? In front of witnesses? Behind the old oak tree? Did someone go down on his (or her) knees to pop the question? This challenge is open for three months."

That's the official text. Although I envision a vignette, I can change the limitation, if you like. It's not crucial, I just thought it'd be easier to get entries if I specified shorter entries.

Enter away, Isabeau. Ditto all others.

 

That's the official text. Although I envision a vignette, I can change the limitation, if you like. It's not crucial, I just thought it'd be easier to get entries if I specified shorter entries.

Enter away, Isabeau. Ditto all others.

I would appreciate it since I'm eleven pages into this sucker, and no sign of stopping. Whew! Much relief on this end!

 

I did so want to do this, but I am afraid I am just not a good enough writer, nor a quick enough one to complete something decent in anything like a reasonable timeframe. How DO you people do it?! I am serious. Do you have jobs? Do you have families? I have written what I thought was a lot over the past year, but honestly - I can't even imagine how someone could possibly do as much writing (and as good writing) as some of you do! It is positively amazing!

Ariel

 

did so want to do this, but I am afraid I am just not a good enough writer, nor a quick enough one to complete something decent in anything like a reasonable timeframe. How DO you people do it?! I am serious. Do you have jobs? Do you have families? I have written what I thought was a lot over the past year, but honestly - I can't even imagine how someone could possibly do as much writing (and as good writing) as some of you do! It is positively amazing!

You should see my house--except you won't see it unless you give me a week's notice so I can clean it up first! I am the slob child of a Martha Stewart mother. I have two part-time jobs, a family, and sundry dependent creatures, and yes, things slip and suffer when I am writing. Which I have been doing now on a regular basis for a year--go me--so I guess it's an established habit! Hopefully, I can get the three things I'm currently working on done so I can devote some time to domestic matters!

 

I have a job, although I'm single and live alone. Actually, a lot of the writing I do comes in between other things at work, as well as around the edges of my life.

I'm not a highly social person outside work - most of my social life happens on the 'net. I don't get out much, so I tend to spend my weekends either writing or playing computer games. I enjoy the writing more.

As for the "good writing" side of things - practice. I've been writing stories ever since I learned how to form the letters. I've been reading for longer - I learned to read when I was two. I've had a diverse set of interests for years now, ranging from anatomy and physiology, through herbal medicine, organic gardening, mathematics, science, theology, history and computers. I've also absorbed a lot from our culture about the way that a story should be, about what works and what doesn't.

But above all I have the *drive* to write. For me, writing is a form of therapy, a way of keeping my brain moving. My brain *needs* to move pretty much constantly, or I start getting depressed. Writing, tossing ideas from one side to another, doing the background processing on plotline and soforth... all of that is the stuff that I need. One of my favourite authors, Robert A Heinlein, once described writing as an addiction. I'm beginning to realise that he was right.

 

I have a job, although I'm single and live alone. Actually, a lot of the writing I do comes in between other things at work, as well as around the edges of my life.

I also have a job - assistant professor of history - and I'm living alone at present though not single (two academic careers in a marriage not being easy). Which in certain ways gives me more time, in other ways less, as I can never say "you do the cooking tonight, honey."

I write at spare moments, but do better if I have hour-long or more chunks. I give up sleep to write, sometimes, since I try very hard not to let this particular addiction interfere too badly with what else I have to accomplish. And I agree with Meg that a great deal of writing well, or even adequately, is simply practice. Experience of real life helps also.

Besides, none of us here can hold a candle to the Good Doctor, the late Isaac Asimov, for prolific writing.

Cel

 

As for the "good writing" side of things - practice. I've been writing stories ever since I learned how to form the letters.

Considering the amount of writing I have already done (considerable) in SW and ST fandom, you'd think I'd have had my share of that. I think I just have to come to a point at which I realize 'this is as good as it will get' and decide then if I am going to continue - although there is something to be said for that addiction angle. I am definitely addicted.

Ariel

 

Besides, none of us here can hold a candle to the Good Doctor, the late Isaac Asimov, for prolific writing.

On a totally OT aside here, back in the late 80's/early 90's, there was a little board game out there in RPG world called Macho Women With Guns, in which you bascially played the typical adolescent male fantasy heroine. Among the abilities you could pick for your heroine were things like Top Heavy, and Runs In High Heels.

Among the Bad Guys your little minx could fight were Great Cthulhu (and yes, they had permission from the Lovecraft Estate--go figure!), and Isaac Azimuth, who meandered about the board leaving large, obstructing piles of popular fiction behind him.

 

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