Why I Let My Young Kids watch The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
… besides the fact that I need them to understand my references
Mae govannen, friends! Josh here. This week’s newsletter is a guest piece from
: follower of Jesus, wife, mama of 3 adorable goblins, lapsed classical singer, avid reader. Some have called her ability to quote the LOTR films obnoxious. Find her on Substack at .In today’s piece, Samantha shares why even though her three kids are all very young, she has already shared The Lord of the Rings movies with them. I enjoyed hearing her perspective and learning how she sees these movies playing a part in equipping her children to better navigate the world through the principles and examples this marvelous tale contains. Enjoy!
Why I Let My Young Kids watch The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
… besides the fact that I need them to understand my references
by
I grew up a very fearful child. I was afraid of quite possibly everything you could imagine—kidnappers, spiders, strange swarming miasmas of illness, being floated down the Nile in a tar-lined basket. I’ve often attributed this to the snippets of scary movies I glimpsed while sitting next to my dad on the couch as he absently channel-surfed, and that certainly didn’t help. But to be totally fair to Dad, I’ve always been sensitive in that way. Any intense or emotionally gripping imagery in media (even books) had a way of latching itself onto my brain and replaying in new and interesting (read: scary) ways as I lay in bed at night, trying to sleep.
Reading this, you may be wondering how adult me even musters up the courage to step foot out of the house for groceries, let alone watch The Lord of the Rings. But I do watch The Lord of the Rings, and the films have been a part of my life from the tender age of four years old when they first started coming out in theaters. While I have some regrets about what I witnessed on TV as a kid, I firmly believe Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings movies helped form an essential part of my offense against fear.
This is one of the major reasons that all three of my children have seen these Lord of the Rings movies several times, even though they’re all under three years old.
Now, I’m very sensitive to the way media can affect little minds, and The Lord of the Rings can get pretty intense. Black Riders and spawn of Ungoliant and Uruks emerging from womb-like mud sacs. Detailed battle sequences, flail-swinging monsters, Denethor getting a bit too close to a bonfire: this is serious stuff. As the kids grow and process what they see on different levels, we’re careful to monitor how they respond to things, and preemptively filter the most unsettling stuff (e.g. severed heads and Gollum finger-biting action). That being said, there’s value in the telling, and watching, of these stories.
There is darkness in the world, and it is no small and weak enemy, but ultimately no darkness is strong enough to overwhelm the light.
I want my children to experience it at this young age because I can’t stress enough to them the value of courage and goodness, and they need every tool at their disposal in order to grow up rooted in this truth: there is darkness in the world, and it is no small and weak enemy, but ultimately no darkness is strong enough to overwhelm the light.
This truth is core to Christian doctrine. It is the singular, unbreakable thread of hope shot through everything we do—the conviction that our Light, Jesus, has defeated and will be triumphant over darkness forever. It’s the truth that runs through all good stories, even sad and scary ones, whether their creators recognize it or not. And we need stories to tell us this, because we can never hear it enough.
Like our hero Samwise said “[these] are the stories that stayed with you, that meant something, even if you were too small to understand why…” And growing up with them helps us hold on to the good in this world as we enter adulthood, facing the great spiders, the Black Gates, the Doom of our time.
For a child especially, the ultimate triumph of good over evil is a complex, abstract thing. It’s a terribly difficult thing to describe. I could write a series of books about why it matters and what it means for Christians and I still wouldn’t feel I’d gotten anywhere. So how do we experience the triumph of good in a way that brings it down to earth, where we can touch it and feel it and sense the rightness of it deep within ourselves?
With stories. And The Lord of the Rings frames it beautifully.
In Tolkien’s epic tale, evil is clearly identifiable and totally despicable. The monsters are ugly and disgusting—there isn’t a hint of beauty in Sauron’s minions or machinations, only degradation and destruction. And, by contrast, the powers of good often quite literally radiate with light and greenness and goodness.
We see the light reflected in Galadriel’s parting gift to Frodo; in the unveiling of Anduril, reforged; in Treebeard’s moss-thrumming voice; in the hearty sunshine of Bilbo’s kitchen; in the sunlight on Faramir’s helm as he rides to meet his fate; in Théoden’s blazing eyes as he leads the charge of the Rohirrim; in Sam’s wholesome potato daydreams. And though death and destruction surround the Fellowship wherever their branching paths lead, the darkness never penetrates through to the very core of things, where truth and hope lie.
Boromir dies, yet in death he embraces reconciliation. Éomer is banished, but returns with Gandalf in the nick of time. Merry and Pippin stir up the Ents, Éowyn delivers the fatal blow to the Witch King, Sam storms Barad-dûr alone.
Though all seems lost in the belly of Mount Doom, the thread of light returns, that serendipitous power that uses even Gollum’s deception and greed as a tool for the good. And though the Ring is destroyed seemingly by accident, we know in our hearts that it was no accident. It was purposed and planned; there was something bigger and more good at work in the story. And somehow the homespun, humble goodness of regular people was enough to help accomplish it.
That thread of light and courage in the face of Mordor’s black cloud lingered with me and impressed itself deeper than any of the fearful things.
Even though I would’ve found this nearly impossible to articulate as a small child, there was a clarity in this story that I needed. When I watched The Lord of the Rings as a child, I was repulsed by the orcs and the goblins and I shivered at the thought of abyss-dwelling Balrogs. The Black Riders petrified me and Shelob haunted me—but that thread of light and courage in the face of Mordor’s black cloud lingered with me and impressed itself deeper than any of the fearful things. In The Lord of the Rings I could see myself brave, though I rarely felt so, because even as a young child I could sense the spiritual realities reflected in Middle-earth’s great conflict.
This is the clarity that our children today need, especially if we want them to see their own spiritual battles in the right light.
Can they receive this clarity without The Lord of the Rings, or any other good, human-made stories? Absolutely! The Holy Spirit knows no boundaries and God’s Word tells his story in all the perfect intricacy we need. My faith in Christ stands on its own legs, battle-tested now that I’ve reached my late twenties. But Sam’s courage, and Éowyn’s defiance, and Théoden’s exhortation, and Arwen’s forbearance, and Aragorn’s nobility each enabled me to put faces to the names, if you will, of those beautiful attributes of God as I grew up. To see them enacted. To imagine myself embracing them.
That is why I love to share The Lord of the Rings with my children. I want them to see evil for the ugliness that it is—and I want them to be drawn in by the beauty regardless, by the idea of light and goodness refusing to cower before the darkness. I want their imaginations to be captured by a story where things turn out right, because darkness and light are not evenly matched—and good prevails, impossibly, inevitably.
Good triumphs over evil, because that is the nature of the world God created. It’s the story he’s been telling since the first word He spoke. And I’m going to keep telling it to my children every chance I get.
Subscriber Spotlight: Dragon Woodshop
Hi all, Josh here again! This week I’m excited to highlight for you an Extended Edition member’s Lord of the Rings products.
Carly K of Dragon Woodshop has a lovely Card Deck Display Case that is Shire-themed and perfect to display the Kings Wild Lord of the Rings playing card decks.
Dragon Woodshop kindly provided me a display case to check out myself and I have to say that as impressive as the photos are of it, it’s even more impressive in person!
I love the color scheme, the layers of the wood that give real dimension and depth to the display, and the design engraved on the merlot colored wooden frame itself. The Hobbit-hole scene is so pleasant and the details of the door and path up to it are just lovely.
Overall the display is gorgeous and it would make a lovely addition to any Lord of the Rings collection.
Head to dragonwoodshop.com for more details, and check out the rest of the shop for even more excellent bespoke displays!
Appendices
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Also a special shout-out and thank you to Bren B for upgrading to an Extended Edition membership this week!
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We also have shown much of LOTR to our littles (5, 3, and 1),and their response was incredible. My 5 yo, who’s afraid of Cruella de Vil and loud noises and every insect ever, hid when Shelob came on the screen but has been asking nonstop questions about Eowyn ever since. She’ll now casually ask, “Mommy, can you tell me the story about Eowyn and the Witch-Kjng of Angmar again?” 😂
And my 3yo boy turned into a tiny, roaring warrior and started copying every move Aragorn made, which was both adorable and hilarious.
Even though it’s dark and battle-filled, they both just lit up while watching it.
I'm reading the books to/with them first but yeah, the LOTR trilogy, because of the story in the books will be an exception to our media rules as well.