J.R.R. Tolkien gave us so much more than goblins, wizards, and hobbits. The beloved author of The Lord of the Rings trilogy also offered sage advice that parents will appreciate more than a ring of power.

Here are five of our favorites – with links to free, online Tolkien essays and letters for you to explore!

On Fairy-Stories (1936)

Be inspired to read more fairy stories to your children… talking beasts, noble deeds, bizarre happenings.

“The land of fairy-story is wide and deep and high, and is filled with many things: all manner of beasts and birds are found there; shoreless seas and stars uncounted; beauty that is an enchantment, and an ever-present peril; both sorrow and joy as sharp as swords. In that land a man may (perhaps) count himself fortunate to have wandered, but its very riches and strangeness make dumb the traveller who would report it…

Children as a class—except in a common lack of experience they are not one—neither like fairystories more, nor understand them better than adults do; and no more than they like many other things. They are young and growing, and normally have keen appetites, so the fairy-stories as a rule go down well enough.”

Letter to his son, Michael (1941)

In one of his most famous letters, Tolkien gave long advice to his son on the subject of women, romantic love, and courtship. Parents will benefit from reading the entire missive.

I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament. … There you will find romance, glory, honour, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves upon earth, and more than that: Death. By the divine paradox, that which ends life, and demands the surrender of all, and yet by the taste (or foretaste) of which alone can what you seek in your earthly relationships (love, faithfulness, joy) be maintained, or take on that complexion of reality, of eternal endurance, which every man’s heart desires.

Letter to his son, Christopher (1944)

The day-to-day tasks of family life are never wasted.

All things and deeds have a value in themselves, apart from their ‘causes’ and ‘effects.’

From the same letter

In the end, parenting comes down to this. 

Evil labours with vast power and perpetual success – in vain: preparing always only the soil for unexpected good to sprout in. So it is in general, so it is in our lives… But there is still some hope that things may be better for us, even on the temporal plane, in the mercy of God. And though we need all our natural human courage a guts and all our religious faith to face the evil that may befall us, still we may pray and hope. I do. 

Letter to Eileen Elgar (1963)

As parents, do we show mercy to our children? And do we teach them mercy for others… and the highest ideals for themselves?

To ourselves we must present the highest ideal without compromise, for we do not know our own limits of natural strength (and grace), and if we do not aim at the highest we shall certainly fall short of the utmost we could achieve. To others… we must apply a scale tempered by ‘mercy.’