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Lord of the Rings Trilogy
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I noticed on the curriculum guide, that these three books are recommended for 10th grade. Have any of you had your dc read these before then? At what age would you think these would be suitable for? I have an almost 14 yo ds who loves to devour books.
Also, I’ve been hesitant to have my ds read these up until now. I made the mistake a few years ago to watch the movies with my dh and was horrified by the demonic activity in the films. For those of you who’ve read the books, please reassure me that the books are not this way
.Hi!
I remember really enjoying reading these the summer I was 12 after after having read “The Hobbit.” I don’t think my mind’s eye called up anything even nearly as gruesome as the movie. It is a “light vs. darkness” epic and I have heard it said that Tolkien represented Christ in three figures, a prophet, a priest and a king. I re-read them in highschool but have never done an in-depth analysis.
HTH even somewhat.
Best,
Richele
I remember reading LOTR when I was 12 or 13 and I loved, loved, loved it! Like Richele, I never imagined anything as scary as the characters in the film. Tolkien was very clear that his books were not allegorical, but I still can’t help seeing the similarities to Spiritual reality in the story. Truly, it is one of the most inspiring books I have ever read, I hope your ds enjoys it whenever he’s ready to read it!
Rachel
We read these aloud when our boys were in the 10-ish range, at least the first time through. We’ve read them since then. My current 9yo has heard them at least twice, though he probably doesn’t remember any but the last time. They are beautiful stories, full of courage and determination to fight evil no matter the cost.
OK, do take this with a grain of salt. We’ve all, ALL seen the movies more times than I can count. I usually horrify folks when I admit we let my youngest watch them at age 3. There are parts of the movies that are hard–to be honest when I have the remote I skip the giant spider sequences–but all in all we feel they are well done and worthwhile. I guess our take on these is something along what CS Lewis once said–and I’m paraphrasing wildly here–but how can our children know how to have courage and fight evil if we don’t let them have the stories where this is demonstrated. Everyone needs to decide which stories are appropriate for this, but in our house Tolkien makes the cut with flying colors. I do like the books better because *I’m* in charge of what I “show” myself, if youw kwim. 🙂 But then, I always like the books better . . .
Michelle
I agree with Bookwork 100%, my daughters and we as a family loved the books and the movies. We watch the movies once a year over a long weekend – it is a tradition with us now and I read the books myself every year – have done since I was in college. They are super books to teach about overcoming evil, and even though it is to each his own, whether you read them or approve of them or not, I highly recommend them. I prefer the books to the movies as well, though I think Peter Jackson did an amazing job with such an epic task. I do not worry about the evil side of the story as I think it gives an opportunity to discuss right and wrong, God’s truth and the evil that is out there. Tolkien was a master storyteller and we are huge fans in this house. Exposing our daughters to these books and movies has not changed their heart for God and I think has enriched them.
Yes, Tolkien did state that the books weren’t meant to be directly allergorical; however, there is an obvious overarching theme of G-d’s Sovereignty from a Judeo-Christian ‘worldview’ in the story that cannot be denied. There is no fuzzy of what is good and evil, it just is. A worldview that does not exist in modern day books of ‘good v/s evil’; they have a secular, even pagan worldview. In LOTR, things happen for a reason with no actions being coincidental. One section in “The Fellowship…” is from Gandalf:
“There was more than one power at work, Frodo. The Ring was trying to get back to it’s master. It had slipped from Isildur’s handand betrayed him; then when a chance came it caught poor Deagol, and he was murdered;and after that Gollum, and it devoured him. It could make no further use of him: he was too small and mean; and as long as it stayed with himhe would never leave his deep pool again. So now, when its master was awake once more and sending out his darkthought from Mirkwood, it abandoned Gollum. Only to be picked up by the most unlikely person imaginable: BIlbo from the Shire!
‘Behind that there was something else at work, beyondany design of the Ring-Maker. I can put it plainer than by saying that Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, and not by its maker. In which case you also were meant to have it. And that may be an encouraging thought.'”
There are other areas like that. There are two Christian based study guides I know of that you might want to look into to promote discussion and illuminate the text.
“Literary Lessons From The Lord of the Rings” at http://www.homescholar.org
and “Study Guides to the Lord of the Rings” at http://www.Christiannovelstudies.com
They are both reviewed at the Old Schoolhouse, too.
Rachel
Now heres another question sparked by Rachels links. Do you recommend a Chrisitian literature study along with the books? Have any of you done this and what are your thoughts? Will my ds lose the joy of reading the books if asked to do a study along with them…or would it infact enrich the reading? I’d love to hear your opinions on this.
Thank you so much for sharing!!!!
HI, me again. I’m not a big fan of study guides. YOu raise a great question which is why we CMer’s don’t use guides.
The only time I would use one would be only for myself for use on a book that I’m not familiar with, don’t want to read myself for whatever reason, but want an in depth analysis of it. I would use it literally as my guide on the conversation about the book, but not give it to the child to answer. He/she would still narrate to me, etc.., I would just have the ‘guide’ to know what’s going on and discuss important elements the child did not pick up.
I don’t know if I just made any sense, I know what I’m trying to say. Please let me know if I made that clear! I just woke up!
Rachel
just wanted to comment about guides…
I think it is in a book by John Holt (I think, its been a long time since I’ve read it, but the idea really struck me), he taught school for years and was always dismayed at how poorly kids did on a test he gave yearly for “All is Quiet on the Western Front” I think it was.
He said those poor kids had been guided so much in how to look at a book, and how to think, that they couldn’t think out of the box and answer his questions, never in 14 yrs did a child pass that test.
That always made me so curious! I wanted more detail! Exactly how were they guided? What were his questions? He said they were obvious, the kids should have been able to answer them, and I was left hungry for more…
Anyway, guides are something some people insist on using, I’m not one of those people. Can they be useful? Sure, but I’d be very careful about steering a child in how to think and what to think. Charlotte aways wanted us to give the child the opportunity to think about what happened and form their own understanding.
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