Why Are We So Fascinated By Knights and Castles?

I thought those were from the 'Dark Ages'

Have You Ever Thought About It?

Today everybody uses guns. Yet we still get excited when we find a stick with a two nubs sticking out close to one end.

Warfare is all tanks and missiles, but we don’t get bored when we watch an army try to scale walls and battering-ram gates as arrows rain down on them.

Everybody thinks dragons are totally fake (except the Haunted Cosmos guys), but they’re all throughout our stories and sketchbooks and business logos.

The greatest buildings today are tall shiny boxes, yet the ruins of dead stone fortresses and ghosts of banners flying proudly continue to fill us with awe and wonder.

In an age of entrepreneurs, you’d think that we’d find feudalistic societies repulsive, where ninety-nine percent of people are doomed to be peasants with no hope of advancement. Yet the prince stepping into and fulfilling his role as king is one of the most spellbinding arcs in existence.

When a woman in a long gown watches a man fight the Black Knight for her love, nobody seems to care that it’s the exact opposite of the cultural narrative.

By all accounts, the society of knights in shining armor should be obsolete and forgotten.

But it’s not.

Reflections

The brave knight goes on a grand adventure, kills the dragon, rescues and marries the girl, and reigns as a noble king forever after. What does that remind you of? King Arthur?

How about this one: Jesus Christ.

God is the author of history. God is the Master Storyteller. Thus, all good stories are reflections of the greatest story He ever told us. Sacrifice, restoration, and staring death in the face - those are all reflections of the story of Redemption.

Something Deeper

But every culture has these kinds of stories. Can’t we just if off like oh, it’s just because that’s what we grew up with. But if you really think about it, that’s not a satisfactory answer.

We heard all kinds of stories when we were little. Kung Fu Panda is one of the bestest movies ever, and it takes place in China. Yet it’s the realm of European kings that we always come back to. Think about Dungeons & Dragons - cloaks, torches, swords, guilds, wizards - what is that? That’s Medieval England.

Our parents can teach us to cheer for certain teams and vote for certain candidates, but teaching us to make a society so starkly different from ours feel like home is beyond their power.

Honoring Our Fathers

If modern society as not made this clear, the Bible thinks far more highly of family lines than we do. That’s why it devotes endless pages to genealogies.

In Numbers 36, the Israelites were commanded to marry within their own tribes so that inheritances would stay within the family.

In Deuteronomy 25, if a man’s brother died without a son, it was his duty to have a child with the wife to preserve his brother’s name.

In the Second Commandment, God says that faithfulness (and faithlessness) has generational impact. If you’ve ever wondered why God has shown so much grace to America despite all of the blasphemy, destruction, and death, this is one reason why.

The point is, the Bible says that family lines matter, so we shouldn’t pretend that they don’t.

What If

What if our deep connection with feudal lore has an even deeper source?

What if the lore of the kings that ruled over our ancestors has been passed down to us?

What if modern culture’s attempts to sever us from our heritage has failed because our connection is forged in blood?

What if we life in a world that isn’t just stuff? What if Men are more than molecules? What if they are living souls?

What if God said it was not good for those souls to be alone, so He knit them together and created families?

What if our parents don’t just give us looks and good manners? What if they give us histories? What if they give us legacies?

What if they give us stories?

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