September 2026: Tomorrow is the Birthday! (Bilbo's and Frodo's, that is...) I got to talking about the "old days" with someone, about how Marigold would blithely issue challenges (I'm not sure "blithely" is the best word in this context, for I have no doubt that those challenges took a lot of thought and effort on her part to put together for all the people who asked for prompts), and how numerous people would rise to the challenge, providing a plethora of stories and lots of wonderful glimpses into various aspects of Tolkien's world and characters.

This person had introduced me to Tumblr some years ago, but while I occasionally read posts there (quite bemused, much of the time), I never posted anything until yesterday, when I experimentally re-posted someone's artwork depicting the Three Hunters. After that daring move, I grew bolder and started recklessly exploring. I found a community there (I think it's called a community, anyhow) called "Tolkien Fandom Events". True to its name, in its (feed?) appeared a rich and varied list of events for 2026. (Since it's September, as you can imagine, many of those events have already gone by.) Fortuitously, however, in that list of events, I found "LOTRWEEK 2026", starting on the 21st! (That's today, for any time travelers from a future time who visit this work eventually.)

I resolved to try, at least. Marigold's Challenges could often get me writing, if only a drabble sometimes. As I pondered the prompts for the seven-day challenge, I thought of Shire: Beginnings and its planned sequel about Marcho and Blanco founding the Shire, which exists as only the barest outline, gently laid away on the shelf a few years ago when I went back to work, and work took all my time and most of my energy.

Since I've already written Bandobras's story in a series of dribbles, I thought, "Why not try the same with Marcho and Blanco?" Drabbles in themselves present quite the challenge, IMO. Distill a story down to its essentials, and present it in no more than 100 words... (however, with Bandobras's story, I cheated a bit by using double- and triple-drabbles. Maybe even a quadruple-drabble, though I don't remember, exactly)

(of course, SoA's clock is a bit ahead of mine, so this will actually be dated as posted on 9/22. So happy birthday, Bilbo and Frodo! ♪ ♫ ♩ And many more...)

Anyhow, that's the background story behind this drabble set. Thanks for listening.

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