Many Meetings

In honor of Finarfin Appreciation Month, this month's challenge asks you to consider nonviolent conflict. Can you create tension and conflict without drawing swords? Many of the key turning points of The Silmarillion take place off of the battlefield, in meetings and councils, between individuals and groups, but few are the instances where we are allowed to see and hear what actually transpired. So let us wander there: to the soaring halls of Valinor or the hovels of the Edain, where decisions that would change the history of Middle-earth were made. Entries may be any length and involve any characters; the goal is to create tension and conflict without resorting to overt action.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

• We all know that Caranthir caused a stir with the sons of Finarfin during the Noldorin council about Thingol, earning the chastisement of Maedhros, and we are granted the chance to see part of this. But what of the rest? What might have led up to Caranthir's reaction, and how might Maedhros have later dealt with it?
• To draw from the material in HoMe, how might the councils between the Valar and between Finwë and the Valar have gone, regarding Finwë's remarriage? To take an AU approach, assume Fëanor's involvement: What might he have said? Or, if you take the approach that Fëanor was an adult when Miriel died, what transpired that he did not go at all?
• How was the decision made by the Valar to re-embody one of the deceased Elves? How might it have progressed in certain individual cases, for example, Finrod? Or Glorfindel?
• Journey to darker places, to the secret meetings between Morgoth and the Men of Ulfang, when they plotted their treachery in Nirnaeth Anoediad. How were they convinced? What might have been the thoughts of their wives? Sisters?

This challenge opened in January 2006 .