In December of 2001, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was released, and a new
playground game was introduced to the kids of W.B Simpson Elementary school. I can vividly remember
the voices clamoring, “Guys! Did you see how Aragorn cut that Uruk Hai’s arms off?!” The children were
going crazy as they recalled scenes from the movie that were the most action packed and combat filled.
I was sitting outside the group just listening along and recalling the same scenes when the idea for a
new playground game was born. Gone was the jungle gym tag and kickball, we now had Lord of the
Rings, playground edition.
Lord of the Rings is a fantasy story about the quest of a hobbit named Frodo and his companions
to destroy the one true ring that was created by Sauron, the antagonist of the movie. A hobbit is a
different race of people that are considered small humans; in the movies they’re called halflings. His
companions are known as the “Fellowship of the Ring” and the main characters from the movie are
comprised of many of those in the Fellowship. The most important three are Aragorn, Legolas, and
Gimli. Aragorn is an exiled man who is the rightful heir to the throne of the king of men, Legolas is an elf
prince who is representing his race because of an unfulfilled duty that one of his race was unable to
accomplish, and Gimli is a dwarf representing a race that is almost extinct due to Sauron’s evil. There are
a bunch of semi-important characters such as the other hobbits in the Fellowship and characters that
are killed off such as Boromir. Their quest is haltered by many obstacles such as monsters, betrayal, and
evil magic. The orcs and uruk hai are the minions of Sauron and they try their best to stop the Fellowship
from destroying the Ring.
It seems innocent enough, right? Kids love to reenact things they see in movies and on TV; it’s
only natural. Lord of the Rings was probably one of the biggest movies of our time, and it just so
happened that it came out when we were kids. However, looking back on this game we loved to play,
there was more to the game than one could see from just observing casually. A hidden social hierarchy
was ever present when teams were picked. With every game teams must be chosen. In kickball, the
ones that are the better kickers and runners are usually picked first, then those who are popular and
socially relevant in the elementary school scene, and then there are always the last ones to be picked
who do not really fit into any of the aforementioned categories. Just as with kickball, picking characters
was necessary in Lord of the Rings PE. (Playground edition)
It followed a similar pattern; those who were popular or socially recognized were allowed to be
the Core Three of Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli. Those who were friends with the popular kids were
allowed to be the other important characters such as Gandalf, Frodo, Sam, and others. Then, there was
always a need to fill the position of orc and uruk hai. That’s where kids like me and the other socially
irrelevant kids came into play. We wanted to be a part of the game, and through desperation, accepted
the role of evil monsters.
It was good enough for us because we just wanted to be a part of something, and Lord of the
Rings was something that everyone knew about. However, as a kid I never took notice of the imbalances
that being an orc or uruk hai came with. We always had shorter sticks for swords, and we were never
allowed to win. Never being allowed to win was always acceptable at the time, because the good guys
were supposed to win. But, looking back I can see that a certain social hierarchy was evident underneath
the innocent game we played.
Why should the more popular kids be allowed to choose Aragorn and Legolas? What made them
any better a swordsman or archer than the kids that had to play as orcs? Honestly, most kids at that age
are not proficient in either of those abilities. The fact that kids liked or knew about the popular kids the
most led to the acceptability of their choosing the important characters. There was no objection
because the friends of those who were popular knew that if they backed their decisions, then they
would also probably be allowed to be the other less important characters without much of a fuss. Those
like me, who were not very known, were always told that we had to be the “important” role of orcs and
uruk hai, because if we didn’t, who would? I lived the life of obscurity in elementary school because I
moved to the school the year that Lord of the Rings came out, and I was placed with the rest of the
outsiders as an orc. I can remember asking to be Aragorn and being laughed at by everyone for my
foolishness. Even in third grade kids can be pretty damn mean.
This adaptation of a social hierarchy into the choosing of roles for something as childish as role
playing of the Lord of the Rings is such an obvious thing to spot now that I can reflect on how things
went as a younger child. As a kid I never really objected to being an orc because it was a way for me to
be a part of the fun during recess. Some lucky kids even got to improve their standing within the
hierarchy by doing small favors for the more popular kids. I can remember sharing my gummies with the
guy who was usually Aragorn at lunch one day, and he promised he would put in word for me to let me
be Boromir for the day. I was ecstatic! At last, I was finally able to kill some orcs instead of dying
constantly as one. Little did I know that we were playing out the scene where Boromir dies at the end so
I still died, but I died happy knowing that I wasn’t an orc. This ability to climb our way up the social
hierarchy and become more socially relevant was a motivating factor in what kept us role playing as orcs
for the majority of the time. By moving up in the Lord of the Rings character importance, we were
adding to our social relevance bit by bit. By fourth grade, I was already a regular Frodo or Gandalf, and I
was friends with the popular kids as well. I’d made my presence known in only a year through climbing
the Lord of the Rings/elementary school social ladder.
Comparing this hidden hierarchy to patterns of social relevance in later stages of life, a similarity
to the social hierarchy that is present in high school is evident as well. Those kids who were popular and
core characters from Lord of the Rings were usually popular in high school as well. I can remember one
kid named Luis, who was always Legolas, being the most well-known guy in high school. Our social
identities are built for us by the people that know and see us, and Luis was pretty much the coolest and
most well-known guy throughout grade school. He had the coolest hair, talked to the most girls (even in
grade school), and had the best toys out of everyone. I even style my hair after his because I thought it
looked so cool. This allowed him to be the most important character during Lord of the Rings role
playing without any fuss in the matter. His reputation followed him from the playgrounds during Lord of
the Rings role playing and elementary school social life to the social ladder of high school. In high school,
Luis had the coolest car, played varsity baseball, and had the prettiest girl friend, just like his social perks
in elementary and middle school. Yet even in high school, we found time to reminisce about when we
were younger; the Lord of the Rings adventures we had as younger children found their way into our
discussions, proving how influential they were.
The gist of all of this fantasy madness and grade school social life is that in everything, even
innocent games that children create, are not free of the social bonds that shape society. In the Lord of
the Rings role playing situation, the social hierarchy that lay behind the scenes was responsible for the
uneven distribution of character selection and how the battle scenes were played out. This ladder of
social relevance was present in nearly everything and shaped the way that we lived our lives. Mobility in
this ladder was possible, but came at a cost to those who wanted to move up. I look back on when I gave
“Aragorn” my gummies at lunch and think to myself what else could I have done other than sacrifice my
gummies to move up in his interest? However, there really wasn’t much I could have done. I could have
given him my juice or chips, but I’d still be sacrificing something to move up. These payments to move
up in the social ladder quicker are evident even in later versions of the ladder as well. Inviting people to
parties and giving people rides in high school were tools to help improve one’s social standing. In order
to even out the unequal distributions of the perks that came with social relevance, these social
transactions were necessary for fairness to be attained in even these little games. The fact that
children’s games such as role playing require these adult concepts to be fair ruins the innocence that
comes with them.
Lord of the Rings definitely was a shaping factor of my childhood as it helped me assimilate
quicker into a newer social environment, and ultimately even helped me in the future. However,
underneath the veil of childhood innocence, lies the fact that social aspects shape everything that we
do, even as children. The examples of Luis as the most popular student and the most important
character, and my mobility through the character and social ladder prove that this form of social
hierarchy is evident in even the most innocent of things.