The 5 Love Languages in The Lord of the Rings

Read to the end for an AMAZING Lord Of The Rings Poster

The 5 Love Languages in The Lord of the Rings

Love is in the air. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth.

The days are steadily getting longer, the Valentine’s day candy is in the store aisles, and V-Day itself is fast approaching. So what better time than now to take a look at the five love languages as portrayed in The Lord of the Rings.

acts of service

Is there any act of service greater than “I will take this cursed magic ring on a journey of thousands of miles at the potential cost of my own soul because none of you can agree who should do it even though I thought I was done once I got it here to your Elven haven”?

Well how about offering your weapon and your service on the journey?

Yeah, you’re right, those are nice but not greater acts of service. But what about going with you that entire way to Mordor AND THEN CARRYING YOU THE FINAL DISTANCE UP AN ACTIVE VOLCANO??

Maybe the real love language was all the acts of service we did along the way.

words of affirmation

ok, there’s definitely the obvious examples:

Then there are the times where an attempt was made but it’s not at all clear if it was successful

and then there are the genuine examples of heartfelt affirmations

receiving gifts

I wrote on this during the week of Epiphany for paid subscribers, but gifts are found all throughout Tolkien’s works. You can read the rest of the free preview here (I spend a lot more time on Galadriel’s gift to Gimli, for instance), but here’s the section where I sum up just a few of the places we find gifts throughout Tolkien’s works:

Gifts are something of a minor recurring theme in Tolkien’s legendarium. Ilúvatar himself gives his younger children, the race of men, the gift of mortality. In the Second Age, Sauron disguises himself in a fair form and gives himself the name Annatar, which means ‘Lord of Gifts,’ while he attempts to sway the elves in Middle-earth to his side. Sméagol demands the One Ring as a birthday gift from his cousin Déagol. Bilbo gifts both Sting and his mithril shirt to Frodo, the latter of which was itself a gift to Bilbo from Thorin. Galadriel gives gifts to the members of the Fellowship upon their departure from Lothlórien. And who could forget this moment from one of the most memeable scenes in the entire film trilogy:

Suffice it to say that there is no shortage of examples of the receiving gifts love language in The Lord of the Rings.

physical touch

if we take it quite literally, there’s lots of physical touch

“Hold out your hand, Frodo…

and if we count violence, there is more physical touch in this story than in most!

Ok, but we’re not just talking about any physical touch, we’re talking about affectionate physical touch connected to love.

Well, physical affection is a hallmark of both the love between friends and romantic love in The Lord of the Rings

I’m not crying thinking about Frodo leaving Sam, Merry and Pippin and sailing West, YOU ARE!

quality time

Nothing says quality time like being together from start to finish on the road to Mordor.

And of course we can’t omit Arwen’s “I’m here for a good time not a long time” to Aragorn:

That’s it, there’s only five love languages, right? Oh no…we’ve, all of us, been deceived, for another love language was made!

Just kidding!

But whatever your love language, you can find it exemplified in The Lord of the Rings. What do you think? What are some other examples from LOTR or Tolkien in general that come to mind? Let me know in the comments!

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Discussion Posts vs Chats vs Discord

I really want this community to be just that: a community, a place where we can have discussions about whatever is going on, whether it’s our current favorites of the month or our history with Tolkien or the latest episode of The Rings of Power when it airs again.

To that end, I’d love to hear what your preferred style of interaction is on Substack. Do you prefer Substack posts specifically for discussion, such as when I asked you about your introduction to Middle-earth? Or maybe you prefer chats in the Subtack app? Or perhaps you’d like it most if I set up a Discord server specifically for subscribers to Jokein with Tolkien? Or maybe none of that sounds interesting haha. That’s ok too! Let me know by voting in the poll below and by commenting!

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Appendices

• The family and I are traveling today through Monday. I had a death in my immediate family and we’re heading to the memorial. We’d appreciate your thoughts and prayers in this extremely difficult season. I won’t be very active on social media this next week but still plan on a Jokien with Tolkien hitting your inbox next Thurs (though if I don’t end up publishing, you’ll know why).

• Check out this amazing vintage poster for The Lord of the Rings that a follower on Post shared with me!