Lord of the Rings and the Gospel

Since I was young, I remember my dad talking a lot about the Lord of the Rings (LOTR) series. He loved the trilogy, and had even learned a lot of the language the J.R.R Tolkien made up from the books. My dad knows everything about LOTR. When the first movie came out, it was a huge deal for my family. My dad was so excited to see it, and it got us all pumped up. We went to the opening showing, and got there way in advance so we could get good seats. I remember I was blown away by the special effects and the beautiful scenery of New Zealand, where the movies were filmed. Wow! I think the reason I like LOTR so much is because of the message it gives. I think there is a lot of analogy to the gospel. For example, Frodo was burdened to carry a ring. He was the only one that could control himself enough to do this because he was so innocent and submissive and through destroying the ring, he would be able to save middle earth from being overtaken by Sauron, the dark lord. In some ways, this is similar to the gospel in that Christ was the only one that could save us, and he had to carry our sins and sorrows to do this. The ring is similar to the burdens that we all carry and that Christ took away from us if we repent. The ring had to be destroyed or Sauron would take over, just like our sins have to be repented or the adversary wins. I love how there are so many analogies like this in LOTR! My husband have the trilogy and watch these movies often. They are long, but so much worth the time and emotion felt!