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Middle Earth Takes a Step Closer Knocking on Heaven’s Door

Middle Earth Takes a Step Closer Knocking on Heaven’s Door

Last updated on: September 28, 2026 at 8:45 am by Shawn Paul Wood

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Middle Earth Takes a Step Closer Knocking on Heaven’s Door 2026-09-26T15:24:28-05:00 Shawn Paul Wood

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Spring 2027 marks the 90th anniversary of Middle Earth and The Shire. This wonderland has captivated fantasy enthusiasts ever since J.R.R. Tolkien put quill to paper. If you consider yourself a Tolkien adherent, then you know his other masterpiece, The Silmarillion, celebrates its 50th anniversary that same year.

That literary genius deserves a beautiful trifecta. The year 2027 is shaping up to be a fantasy alignment for Tolkien’s estate. The grandeur and splendor of Westminster Abbey provide the missing third jewel.

Next year, the Abbey will honor J.R.R. Tolkien with one of the preeminent literary distinctions anywhere in the world: a cherished place nestled in its Poets’ Corner.

An image of the hallowed halls of Westminster Abbey and it's Poet's Corner.

An image of the hallowed halls of Westminster Abbey and its Poet’s Corner. (Image Credit: @WABBEY via X)

Hobbits and elves, men and ents, wizards and whatever Gollum is populate Middle Earth. Yet Tolkien was doing much more than inventing creatures with questionable dental plans and an unhealthy attachment to jewelry.

His imagination was steeped in his Catholic faith. (For those new to the show, that’s Tolkien’s faith…not Lewis’. That comes later.)

And next year, his writings move one step closer to a semblance of righteousness. Arguably, something even more heartwarming is happening. Westminster Abbey announced that it will place Tolkien alongside his longtime friend, C.S. Lewis, the man Tolkien helped lead toward faith in Christ.

And, not for nothing, the Abbey memorialized the revered author and theologian in Poets’ Corner in 2013.

Fantasy literature may not be your jam. The idea of hobbits may make you cringe and strain your idea of what “Mere Christianity” really is. (See what I did there?)

However, Tolkien’s place among the most respected writers in history appeals to believers for other beautiful reasons. What on Middle Earth could those be? Park close to home and prepare for a journey.

BUT FIRST: Headlines impact the Body of Christ every week. Somebody has to dissect them with a real understanding of faith, rather than just a hot take from a news talk show, right? Subscribe to our free newsletter for a straight biblical answer to why each story actually matters to your faith. That’s what hits close to home!

Tolkien’s Place Among the Icons of Writing

An AI-generated image of the most respected fantasy writers in history -- Robert Jordan, George R.R. Martin, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Robin Hobb, Ursula K. Le Guin

From L to R: Robert Jordan, George R.R. Martin, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Robin Hobb, Ursula K. Le Guin

He belongs. Period.

That one gets to stand alone because there isn’t much to debate. J.R.R. Tolkien changed literature. You don’t have to own a replica of Sauron, speak Elvish, or know the difference between an orc and a Uruk-hai to admit that.

Westminster Abbey seems to agree. Think about it:

Robert Jordan (The Eye of the World)
George R.R. Martin (Game of Thrones)
Robin Hobb (Assassin’s Apprentice)
Ursula K. Le Guin (The Wizard of Earthsea)
C.S. Lewis (The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe)
J.R.R. Tolkien (The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings)

That is the definitive list of fantasy writers in all literary history. And only Tolkien and Lewis belong in Westminster Abbey, together. As they should. Poets’ Corner is one of those places where the names can make a writer feel very small, very quickly.

Geoffrey Chaucer was buried there in 1400.
He was followed over the centuries by Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling and Thomas Hardy.
William Shakespeare has a memorial there.
So do Jane Austen and the Brontë sisters.
More than 100 writers and poets are now buried or remembered in that corner of the Abbey.
Including C.S. Lewis in 2013.

And now, long overdue, Tolkien joins them in 2027.

A black and white image of JRR Tolkien posing by his favorite tree on Oxford's campus

J.R.R. Tolkien posing by his favorite tree on Oxford’s campus (Image Credit: Westminster Abbey)

The timing couldn’t be much better. The announcement came on September 21, the anniversary of the 1937 publication of The Hobbit. Next year marks 90 years since readers first met Bilbo Baggins and followed him out of the Shire. It also marks 50 years since The Silmarillion was published in 1977.

Westminster could have marked the occasion with a plaque and called it a day. Thankfully, someone had a better idea.

British sculptor Stephen Broadbent is creating a 2.5-meter memorial based on Tolkien’s Tree of Tales. It will be made from native British woods and installed in a stone pillar in the Abbey’s south transept. Even better, the memorial will contain wood from the black pine that once stood in Oxford University’s Botanic Garden.

Tolkien loved that tree. Oxford eventually came to know it simply as “Tolkien’s tree.” It stood for generations before damage forced the university to bring it down in 2014.

Part of that tree is about to take root again.

The Tree of Tales Takes Root at Westminster

An illustration of JRR Tolkien's The Tree of Amalion before he created Middle Earth

J.R.R. Tolkien will be honored with a new 2.5-meter-tall memorial in Westminster Abbey’s Poets’ Corner, inspired by his personal illustration of the “Tree of Amalion” or “Tree of Tales” (Image Credit: The Tree of Amalion, 1928 (c) Tolkien Trust, 1978)

There is something wonderfully Tolkien about that. A storyteller who gave us Fangorn Forest, the Ents and a walking, talking tree named Treebeard will be remembered with a tree made partly from his tree. You can’t make that up.

Well, Tolkien probably could.

The design goes deeper than a clever tribute. Tolkien called his Tree of Tales the “Tree of Amalion”. The image became connected with his idea of stories growing, branching and sharing roots. Artist Stephen Broadbent says the finished memorial will give visitors the feeling of looking through a “Forest of Stories” toward another land beyond.

That sounds lovely enough until you remember what Tolkien believed those roots ultimately reached.

The Dean of Westminster, the Very Reverend Dr. David Hoyle, described Tolkien as “a man with a Christian imagination”. That’s an important choice of words because Tolkien never considered his faith an accessory to his fiction. It wasn’t something he kept in a separate drawer while he worked on Middle Earth.

In a 1953 letter to Jesuit priest Robert Murray, Tolkien described The Lord of the Rings as “a fundamentally religious and Catholic work”. He said he had removed almost all direct references to religion, worship and religious practice from the finished story. The faith remained. Tolkien believed it had simply been absorbed into the story itself.

That explains quite a bit once you know to look for it. Middle Earth is a place where power corrupts people who believe they can control it. Pride destroys. Mercy matters. Ordinary people are called to do extraordinary things. Sacrifice costs something. Hope survives when common sense says it shouldn’t.

Sounds almost…well, biblical.

And then there is Frodo’s mercy toward Gollum. That miserable little creature may offer one of the clearest windows into the faith beneath Tolkien’s fantasy.

The Christian Imagination Behind Middle Earth

AI-generated image of Jesus and Sauron facing each other over "The Battle Over Middle Earth" done in a medieval print

Even AI understands what the theological battle over Middle Earth would look like.

Remember: Gandalf tells Frodo that Bilbo’s pity may eventually determine the fate of many. Frodo doesn’t understand why anyone would spare someone as dangerous as Gollum. By the end of the story, we understand when Frodo reaches Mount Doom and fails.

That theme of mercy changing the fate of Middle Earth is one of the clearest places Tolkien’s Christian worldview surfaces. Christians should recognize that tune.

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“Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy” (Matthew 5:7).
Paul reminds believers that God’s strength works through human weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9–10).
God chooses David even though his brothers seem more qualified (1 Samuel 16:6–13).

Tolkien wasn’t retelling those passages with hobbits. He hated heavy-handed allegory and said so. But the worldview underneath Middle Earth came from somewhere. It came from a man who believed the Gospel was true.

Fantasy sometimes gets treated as Christianity’s weird cousin. Tolkien saw imagination differently. He believed our ability to make stories was connected to the fact that we ourselves were made by a Creator (Genesis 1:26–27).

Jesus certainly wasn’t afraid of imagination. He told stories about farmers scattering seed, shepherds chasing sheep, women searching for coins and fathers waiting for wandering sons to come home (Matthew 13:1–23; Luke 15:1–32). Those stories weren’t distractions from truth. They carried people toward it.

Now Westminster Abbey will place his memorial alongside that of his close friend C.S. Lewis.

Tolkien earned his place among Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dickens, Austen and some of the greatest writers in the English language. That’s fitting for the man who helped reshape modern fantasy.

But Westminster is doing something else that makes this story much better.

They’re putting him near an old friend. And that friend once thought Christianity was just another myth.

The Fabled Relationship Between J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis

JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis with friends outside a pub in Oxford, est. 1930s

JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis with friends outside a pub in Oxford, est. 1930s (Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

It was a brisk night on September 19, 1931. J.R.R. Tolkien and Oxford lecturer Hugo Dyson were spending some time with their mutual friend, C.S. Lewis. The duo spent hours at Addison’s Walk in Oxford doing what most believers wouldn’t…well, believe.

They were witnessing to Lewis.

Yes, really! The author of Mere Christianity needed help to experience it.

Many fans of fantasy literature, or just of Tolkien and Lewis, assume C.S. Lewis was always a lover of God. He wasn’t.

Lewis had been an atheist. By the time of the fabled stroll down Addison’s Walk with Tolkien and Dyson, he had accepted the existence of God, but Christianity still presented a problem. A scholar at heart, Lewis could appreciate ancient myths about sacrifice, dying gods and resurrection. Put similar claims inside the Gospels, however, and something in him resisted. Myths were stories. Christianity claimed its story had actually happened.

Tolkien saw an opportunity to share the Gospel. And the Lord saw a friendship that would last a lifetime.

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Lewis believed myths could contain beauty and meaning without being literally true. Tolkien challenged the premise. What if those ancient stories weren’t alternatives to the Gospel? Imagine if they reflected humanity’s longing for the Gospel before the world knew its name?

What if the story Lewis kept encountering in mythology had finally happened in history?

That conversation lasted into the early morning. Less than two weeks later, Lewis wrote his longtime friend Arthur Greeves and told him something had changed. He now believed in Christ and Christianity. The future author of Mere Christianity had been evangelized by a Catholic philologist who, during a walk, talked about mythology.

Tell me again that God only uses sermons. Even an elf would tell you differently.

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About Shawn Paul Wood

Shawn Paul Wood, Th.D., is an award-winning copywriter, contributor, and content strategist, and ghostwriter of several faith-based articles, speeches, columns, and books who has worked for some of the most admirable brands in their respective industries for over 20 years. As Founder of Woodworks Communications, he leads teams of content strategists and marketing professionals to expand the brands of corporate leaders, serial entrepreneurs, and respected ministers of the Gospel. He aims to help others develop self-discovery through stories and the written word to proclaim the Word to the world. For more information about his portfolio or help telling your story, visit WoodworksCommunications.com. You can read more about the author here.

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