It Comes in Threes

SWG It Comes In Threes challenge banner - a photo of three complimentery geometric shape bottles with colored liquids; text "It Comes in Threes: SWG Challenge March 15 - April 15, 2024"

Pythagoras called the number three the noblest of all digits. Certainly, language, religion, myth, history, literature, and popular culture are littered with things that come in threes. The legendarium is no exception. Three is a powerful number in Tolkien's world, and like the Primary World, there are many examples in Middle-earth that come in threes. (The word "three" is mentioned fifty-nine times in The Silmarillion!)

For this month's challenge, we gathered 130 prompts that occur in sets of three. You can select any prompt (or prompts!) from our list to inspire or incorporate in your fanwork. Note that some prompts may have multiple meanings or interpretations. When this is the case, you can choose whatever interpretation you want to use.

We also craft our March challenge to integrate with other challenges and events (traditionally Back to Middle-earth Month!), so this is a good time for a reminder that our challenges can be combined with other events.

Thank you to Independence1776 for this month's lovely stamps and banner!

This challenge opened in .

Prompts

Choose your prompt from the collection below.

View Prompts
  • Ages of Man (or Woman)
  • ages of Melkor's sentence in Mandos
  • alchemical primes (salt, sulfur, mercury)
  • ancient, medieval, modern
  • bad things
  • barleycorns in an inch
  • Beastie Boys
  • Bears
  • Bee Gees
  • beginning, middle, end
  • blind mice
  • blood, sweat, & tears
  • Classical states of matter (solid, liquid, gas)
  • clauses, words, or phrases in a tricolon
  • cheers
  • children of Fingolfin
  • coins in the fountain
  • colors on a traffic light
  • dimensions
  • doshas (wind, bile, phlegm)
  • Elven rings
  • Fates
  • fates of the Silmarils (earth, sea, sky)
  • feet in a yard
  • fight, flight, freeze
  • Furies
  • goals in a hat trick
  • good, bad, ugly
  • good things
  • Graces
  • haiku
  • hands in a foot 
  • Han, Luke, & Leia
  • see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil
  • Heaven, Hell, Purgatory
  • hosts of the Quendi
  • Houses of the Edain
  • id, ego, superego
  • Isildur's ships
  • Kirk, Spock, & McCoy
  • Laws of Robotics
  • layers of air (Vista, Ilmen, Vaiya)
  • layers of Earth (core, mantle, crust)
  • legislative, executive, judicial
  • "Lights! Camera! Action!"
  • life, liberty, & pursuit of happiness
  • Little Pigs
  • masts on a barque
  • ménage à trois
  • miles in a league
  • Mîm, Khîm, & Ibun
  • monastic vows (poverty, chastity, obedience)
  • months in a quarter
  • morning, noon, and night
  • Musketeers
  • Newton’s Laws of Motion
  • Nienna, Namo, & Irmo
  • Norns
  • notes in a chord
  • "Of the people, by the people, for the people"
  • "On your mark! Get set! Go!"
  • original Star Wars films
  • palantíri of Elendil
  • past, present, future
  • points to determine a plane
  • positive, neutral, negative
  • primary colors
  • proton, electron, neutron
  • quarks in a baryon
  • "Ready! Aim! Fire!"
  • red, green, blue
  • Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
  • Rock-Paper-Scissors
  • Rule of Three
  • scruples in a dram
  • sections in a triptych
  • sex, drugs, & rock 'n' roll
  • sheets to the wind
  • sides of a triangle
  • Silmarils
  • sisters
  • small, medium, large
  • sons of Bór
  • sons of Finwë
  • sons of Ulfang
  • Stooges
  • strands in a braid
  • strikes
  • subject-verb-object
  • tercet
  • The Three Hunters (Legolas, Aragorn, & Gimli)
  • third eye
  • third time's a charm
  • third wheel
  • three act structure
  • 3Cs
  • three great virtues (faith, hope, charity)
  • three hots and a cot
  • three-legged race
  • Three Jewels (Buddha, dharma, sangha)
  • three-peat
  • three-ring circus
  • Three R’s (reading, writing, arithmetic)
  • three square meals
  • Three Treasures (compassion, frugality, humility)
  • Three Virtues (good thoughts, good words, good deeds)
  • throuple
  • Tolkien’s first names
  • triathlon events (swimming, cycling, running)
  • Tridevi
  • Trifecta
  • trillium
  • trilogy
  • trimester
  • Trimurti (Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva)
  • Trinity
  • Triple Goddess (maiden, mother, crone)
  • triplets
  • Triumvirate
  • Trolls that Bilbo encountered
  • trunks of Hírilorn
  • types of rock (sedimentary, igneous, metamorphic)
  • vanilla, chocolate, strawberry
  • veni, vidi, vici
  • waltz
  • wise men
  • wishes
  • Witches
  • yes, no, maybe so
  • Zeus, Poseidon, Hades

Fanworks Tagged with It Comes in Threes

This is a Writing fanwork

Triptych, II by Grundy

Three vignettes, three times Luthien thinks about Treelight and Silmarils.

Fanwork Information and Table of Contents

This is a Writing fanwork

If Time Run True and Away by Anne Wolfe

In Tol Eressëa, Celebrían and Galadriel talk about Arwen. Written for the "It Comes in Threes" challenge, inspired by Maiden, Mother and Crone.

Fanwork Information and Table of Contents

This is a Writing fanwork

Stranded by Flora-lass

Maglor sits by the sea, and thinks about hair. A sequel to 'Strands'.

Fanwork Information and Table of Contents

This is a Writing fanwork

Waltzing with you by daughterofshadows

It's a nice evening and Laurendil is trying to teach Rog to dance.

Fanwork Information and Table of Contents

This is a Writing fanwork

Three Strands in a Braid by between_thepages

Ecthelion tries to braid Glorfindel's hair.

Fanwork Information and Table of Contents

This is a Multimedia fanwork

Atmospherics by Anérea, sallysavestheday

The three atmospheres of Arda celebrated in three drabbles and three photos...

Fanwork Information

This is a Writing fanwork

Ready, Aim, Fire by Tehta

Or, Three Attempts to Get Out of Archery Practice

Fanwork Information and Table of Contents

This is a Writing fanwork

The Unrest of the Noldor by StarSpray

Minyelmë comes to Tirion to see Lalwen, arriving just in time to see things come to a head.

Fanwork Information and Table of Contents

This is a Writing fanwork

It comes in Threes by cílil

Three triple drabbles written for the It comes in Threes challenge, featuring various Ainur.

Fanwork Information and Table of Contents

This is a Writing fanwork

Wingfeet: Racing across Ard-galen by Himring

A Dwarf, a Man, and an Elf race across a grassy plain... Except that these three are original characters of the First Age racing across the plain of Ard-galen and their plight is rather different.

Fanwork Information and Table of Contents

This is a Writing fanwork

Gilded Knife by elennalore

Ar-Pharazôn takes part in the first ceremony of the new Temple, and Zigûr is there to help him.

Fanwork Information and Table of Contents

This is a Writing fanwork

Blend, Bond, Blaze by sallysavestheday

Fingon, Angrod, and Aegnor wish to be more alike.

Fanwork Information and Table of Contents

This is a Writing fanwork

Grey Ships Sailing by Lferion

Grey ships depart Mithlond

Fanwork Information and Table of Contents

This is a Writing fanwork

Dreivierteltakt by chrissystriped

Maeglin questions his decision to come to a party, but when Celebrimbor introduces himself to him, everything starts to feel so much better.

Fanwork Information and Table of Contents

This is a Writing fanwork

Shadow's Instadrabbles by daughterofshadows

The home of my insta-drabbling pieces!

(and the odd drabble of undetermined origin)

Fanwork Information and Table of Contents

This is a Writing fanwork

All Hues and Honeys by Dawn Felagund

This is my latest collection of pieces too small to stand alone, often written for events on the SWG Discord.

The Latest:
"Fly." Fingon's faith in his friendship with Maedhros leads him to the decision to rescue him.
"Salt." Uinen discovers the kinslaying.
"Sunship." Nerdanel places the final cog in the sunship as an act of resistance.
"No One Heard That." The histories withheld some details of Fëanor's muster of the Noldor.
"Cracked." Námo explains death to a young Fëanor.
"Sunship, Reprise." The sunship's launching, from the perspective of the other side of the sea.
"Shadows beyond a Campfire." The sons of Fëanor build a campfire after the Nirnaeth.
"The Neologist." Pengolodh on language and history at three points in Gondolin's history.

Fanwork Information and Table of Contents