Tolkien's Tree To Be Part Of His Memorial Next To C.S. Lewis In Poets' Corner Of Westminster Abbey

Image Source: Relevant Magazine 

J.R.R. Tolkien is being honored with a memorial beside his dear friend and critique partner, C.S. Lewis, in the Poets’ Corner of historic Westminster Abbey. Tolkien and Lewis, author of The Chronicles of Narnia, will be in good company, as more than a hundred other iconic writers are buried or have memorials there, including Shakespeare, Austen, Dickens, and the Brontës, among others.

Artist Stephen Broadbent will build a tree for Tolkien. The tree is inspired by Tolkien’s own drawing of the Tree of Amalion, which he called the Tree of Tales. The tree will be inlaid in a stone pillar rising about 2.5 meters, made mostly from native British woods, including a piece of black pine from the tree known as Tolkien’s Tree, his favorite on the grounds of the Oxford Botanic Garden.

The dedication is expected in spring 2027, marking the 90th anniversary of The Hobbit and the 50th of The Silmarillion.

David Hoyle, Dean of Westminster, expressed genuine excitement in an announcement, saying, “The Hobbit was read to me when I was a boy; when I was a little older, I read The Lord of the Rings, and then I read it again. We will remember here a master storyteller, a scholar, a man with a Christian imagination, and a writer who helped some of us understand that a commitment to life and virtue might be costly and courageous.”

Since Tolkien and Lewis were close friends and literary colleagues who taught together at Oxford, read each other’s drafts, and often visited their favorite pub to discuss their faith and stories, it seems only fitting that their memorials remember them together.

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Source: Relevant Magazine

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