1. Complete by Zhie [Reviews - 0] (286 words)
The challenge was “Choose a location in Arda and write down five defining traits of that place. Now create a story, poem, or artwork in which you show how that location influenced the lives of the people in and around it.” For this piece, we chose Moria, and came up with the following five items: Cavernous; Protected (gated); Treasure (value); Hides secrets and contains answers; Dangerous/Death. Then, we chose five groups affected by Moria: Dwarves, Elves, Orcs, the Fellowship, and the Balrog. Each section is written so that the first four lines dealt with the Dwarves and Elves, which we decided were in a way intertwined in this endeavor. The next two are for the Orcs, the following for the Fellowship, and the final two for the Balrog. We wrote this over dinner, passing the notebook across the table back and forth. I highly suggest; was a fun method of writing! (Also, we were having dinner out, at a place with a kid’s area that has a big curved blackboard for them to draw on. As we were writing, one of the little girls announced to the other kids ‘Now I am going to draw a Hobbit house. I know what they look like. I saw them on TV.’ and followed through on her promise. And a very nice Hobbit house it was. For my part, I giggled like a fool.)