Tolkien Sculpture to be Unveiled Next Month

Two new wooden carved sculptures celebrating East Yorkshire’s influence on J. R. R. Tolkien’s work will be officially unveiled on June 6 at All Saints Church in Roos, East Riding of Yorkshire.

Funded by East Riding of Yorkshire Council and Route Yorkshire Coast, the statues fom part of the ongoing celebration of Tolkien's connection to the area which feature on the council's self-guided trail, The Tolkien Triangle. 

Tolkien spent more than a year in the region while convalescing from trench fever which he contracted during the Battle of the Somme in the First World War, and the area’s landscape is thought to have inspired sections of his Middle-earth writings including The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

The hand-carved oak statues of the writer and his wife, Edith, evoke the moment in summer 1917 when she danced for him in Dent's Garth wood (what Tolkien described elsewhere as a "hemlock glade") close to the village of Roos which lies between Hornsea and Withernsea. This inspired Of Beren and Lúthien, a key episode in The Silmarillion. One statue eight-and-a-half feet high shows the young Tolkien, while the second next to it depicts Edith dancing in silhouette etched into a thick oak slab - it will face the Tolkien statue and be positioned so that the sun will shine through the steel silhouette, illuminating the woods behind. The statues are the work of Lincolnshire-based artist Allen Stichler. "It's been a privilege to be involved in this project, and I hope I've done such a giant of the literary world justice," he said.

“These statues aim to honour J.R.R. Tolkien’s profound connection to East Yorkshire," said Councillor Nick Coultish, cabinet member for culture, leisure and tourism at East Riding of Yorkshire Council, "a place that played a pivotal role in shaping the imaginative world of Middle-earth. The unveiling of these statues stands as a tribute not only to his time here during the First World War but also to the lasting impact this beautiful landscape had on his creativity. Tolkien found inspiration for some of his most enduring stories, and it is fitting that we celebrate his legacy in the very place that helped spark it."