If you're racking your brain going - "'Marriage? marriage?' I don't remember anything about love and marriage in the 'Lord of the Rings'! It was all about hacking up mythical monsters with swords!" - you're only half right! While the trilogy is a mythical tale of valor and violence in order to save Middle Earth, there's a way to use the trilogy as a screening tool to see if the person you're pouring your heart out to is a "keeper" who has the character to make a relationship work long term.
Please understand, don't use JUST this simple test to make a decision that affects the rest of your life. This screening tool is just a common sense step - it doesn't replace premarital surveys about "compatability" or other things you need to do to confirm your decision. It is a way to know in the first 10 hours of spending time together whether you share the same values or if your potential soulmate is really there just to use you and dump you when the newness wears off.
First, when you're starting to experience the euphoria that comes by thinking "I've found my soulmate", recognize that it may just be a wave of emotions hitting you hard. Step back and suggest that you spend some time watching your "favorite movie ever" - the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.
Then watch it!
Here are the clues to look for:
1. If they are willing to do what you want to do for this "marathon" session of 3 movies, that's a start.
2. The real key is to watch how they react to key characters and scenes in the trilogy. Even if they've seen the trilogy a dozen times and have lost their initial "oohs and aahs" an important clue is how this potential soulmate who's a marriage prospect reacts to the relationship between Sam and Frodo. Nonchalantly comment on Sam's faithfulness and see what kind of conversation develops.
Here's why: True lifetime soulmates and good potential marriage partners are going to face all of life together. Inevitably that can mean stress, pressure, arguments, and sadness. It will be the complete opposite of the wave of euphoria that usually begins a relationship and lasts the first few years.
You want to know "when the going gets rough, will this person value faithfulness, loyalty, and endurance?"
Though Sam and Frodo are just best friends, they go through hell together, fight, argue, and have to forgive each other. They are united by their friendship and mission in the same way a lifetime soulmate and marriage partners need to be united.
If you get reactions to Sam like "what a dope!" that's not a good sign. It's not a great sign if you mention all this and they half-heartedly say "oh yeah, that too." If by the end of watching the trilogy, your potential soulmate can't see that the theme of the trilogy is that virtues like humility, perseverance, faithfulness and loyalty win out - will they recognize the faithfulness and loyalty needed to make a relationship work?
"Character carries over." What people value watching epics like the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy carries over into daily life.
Don't waste the best years of your life playing soulmate and getting married to someone who, in the end, will turn out to be a dork, if not an "orc".
Invest a few hours watching the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy (or other shows that portray the values you hold dear) before you make up your mind about a soulmate and marriage!
Published by Charles Huckaby
Chuck Huckaby is a career facilitator and pastor specializing in career placement, telecommuting issues, home business, rural issues, and our transitioning economy and society. View profile
- Racial Politics in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the RingsThis essay delves into how the many races in Lord of the Rings reacted to one another. Inferences to potential rivalries are explored.
Lord of the Rings: A World War I and II Allegory?Nearly everyone agrees that J.R.R. Tolkien wrote a true masterpiece when he wrote his trilogy Lord of the Rings, and we find it surreal to think that he and other literary great...- Lord of the Rings Goes MMOTurbine Inc. and Midway Games Inc. released "The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar" multiplayer online (MMO) game today.
The Hobbit: Lord of the Rings Prequel?Peter Jackson, Lord of the Rings director, says he won't be a part of The Hobbit.
- Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth II
- Video Game Cheat for Playstation 2: Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
- The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age: How Does This LOTR RPG Stand Up?
- Tolkien's Etymology in Lord of the Rings
- AK's Movie Reviews: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
- Gift Ideas for Lord of the Rings Fans
- Trite Trilogies: The Matrix, Lord of the Rings, and Star Wars Are the Same Movie
- Don't make lifetime decisions based on that first wave of emotion.
- Test your potential soulmate and marriage partner's character before committing.
- Start the process with a simple "secret" screening tool! Here's how!



