New artwork inspired by Tree of Amalion for Poets’ Corner
J.R.R. Tolkien, writer, artist, scholar and linguist is to be honoured in Westminster Abbey in Poets’ Corner alongside his close friend and fellow writer, C.S. Lewis.
A major new memorial celebrating Tolkien’s creative vision and storytelling by artist Stephen Broadbent will be revealed at a dedication ceremony in Spring 2027, which marks the 90th anniversary year of The Hobbit and 50th anniversary year of The Silmarillion.
The new memorial has been inspired by Tolkien’s Tree of Tales, which he called the Tree of Amalion. Featuring the imagery of a tree in a forest as its central theme, it will be a significant new artwork for the Abbey, inlaid vertically within a stone pillar in the south transept and rising 2.5 metres high.
Predominantly made from native woods found in the UK, it will include a piece of the iconic black pine, known as ‘Tolkien’s tree’, which was felled from Oxford University’s Botanic Garden in 2014. The tree, a Pinus nigra, was a favourite of Tolkien during his time in Oxford.
The Dean of Westminster, The Very Reverend Dr David Hoyle said:
“I am delighted both that there will be a memorial to JRR Tolkien in the Abbey and that the memorial will be a thing of beauty.
‘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.”
Artist Stephen Broadbent said: “It has been a delight and honour to firstly imagine and then develop a memorial for Westminster Abbey that commemorates Tolkien’s literary enterprise and creative imagination. The artwork will present to the viewer the sense of peering into another world: a ‘Forest of Stories’, with Tolkien’s remarkable ‘Tree of Tales’ accepted into the heart of it. Then through this magical forest there is an evocative glimpse to a land beyond.”
Maker Mark Boddington, Silverlining said: “Given Tolkien’s love of trees and craftsmanship, it is especially gratifying that the Abbey and the Tolkien Estate’s vision for the memorial, together with Stephen’s richly evocative design, will be brought to life using locally sourced timbers and a blend of traditional and innovative British craftsmanship, creating a work that visitors to the Abbey can admire and appreciate for generations to come.”
Known to millions around the world as the author of The Lord of The Rings and The Hobbit, Tolkien spent most of his life as a distinguished academic at Oxford University, where he taught Old and Middle English, and Old Norse. Outside his academic life he created fantasy books, children’s stories, poetry and illustrations, as well as inventing languages and alphabets.
The Lord of The Rings was a sequel to Tolkien’s 1937 children’s book The Hobbit. Considered one of the greatest fantasy books ever written, it has shaped the modern fantasy genre and is one of the best-selling books of all time. Over 150 million copies have been sold; it has been translated into over 35 languages and inspired award-winning adaptations for film and television.
Broadbent studio in Chester, led by Stephen Broadbent, who has a 40-year background in public art projects, secured the commission following a competitive process. The final design concept was informed by discussions with Tolkien scholars and experts and consultation with the Tolkien Estate.
Beyond the choice of imagery there will also be a Tolkienian ethos about the making of the work, which will use the finest British craftsmanship. It will be made by a team of designers, engineers and artisans from Silverlining Furniture in Wrexham. The idea of the memorial was first put forward by Lord Alton as Chairman of the Christian Heritage Centre at Stonyhurst and made possible through the support and generosity of the Tolkien Estate.
Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey has been a place of pilgrimage for literature lovers for hundreds of years. More than 100 poets and writers are buried or have memorials here.
Officially in the eastern aisle, the ‘corner’, of the Abbey’s south transept, over time graves and memorials have spread across the whole transept.
Many of those buried or remembered are world-famous, like William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters and Charles Dickens. Others, though popular in their day, are now less well known.
The first poet to be buried here, in 1400, was Geoffrey Chaucer, author of The Canterbury Tales – not because he was a poet but because he was Clerk of the King’s Works in the Palace of Westminster.
Nearly 200 years later, Edmund Spenser (1553-1598) who wrote ‘The Faerie Queene’ for Elizabeth I, one of the longest poems in the English language, asked to be buried near Chaucer – perhaps with an eye to his own literary reputation. And so began a tradition of burials and memorials which continues to this day.
The Dean of Westminster decides who receives a place, which is based on merit after wide consultation.
The most recent memorials to poets and writers here are Ted Hughes (2011), C.S. Lewis (2013) Philip Larkin (2016) and PG Wodehouse (2019).
Photo Credit – Jonny Nolan
