Tolkien sculptures celebrate region’s influence on author

TOWERING FIGURE: Sculptor Allen Stichler, left, and historian Phil Mathison next to one of the new J.R.R. Tolkien sculptures in Roos

By Angus Young

Two oak sculptures have been unveiled celebrating East Yorkshire’s influence on Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien.

The writer was stationed near the Holderness coast as a young soldier during the First World War when his regiment, the 3rd Lancashire Fusiliers, was sent there to counter a potential German invasion.

After seeing action in France and contracting the bacterial infection known as trench fever,  he returned to the area for lengthy stays at a military convalescent hospital in Cottingham Road in Hull where he drafted several of his earliest works.

The Holderness countryside and some of the ancient legends surrounding it provided real-world inspirations to help shape Tolkien’s literature, including the fictional world of Middle-earth where his most famous works The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings and The Slimarillion are mainly set.

Now his early married life in Holderness has been marked with two new oak-carved sculptures in the village of Roos.

Made by tree sculptor Allen Stichler, they depict Tolkien dressed in military uniform looking at the dancing silhouette of his wife Edith.

Local historian Phil Mathison said: “The statues depict a treasured memory from the summer of 1917 when the couple were taking a walk around the village.

“It was here in Dents Garth Wood near All Saints Church that Edith decided to dance and sing for him among the cow parsley.

RICH HISTORY: The Tolkien Triangle

“She was already carrying their first child and the happiness they shared in that moment would have been in such sharp contrast to what was going on elsewhere in the world at the time.”

It was Edith’s dance and their shared love of this special place that inspired Tolkien to write Beren and Luthien, one of his earliest tales of Middle-earth featuring the love and adventures of a mortal man and an immortal elf-maiden.

Mr Mathison, who has spent 30 years researching and writing about Tolkien’s time in East Yorkshire, added: “The image of the two of them in this forest glade stuck with him for the rest of his life.

“He never forgot this precious time here and in a radio interview shortly before his death he intimated that Roos was the place that most inspired his world of Middle-earth.

“When Edith died in 1971, he had ‘Luthien’ inscribed on her headstone. When he died, ‘Beren’ was added under his name on his headstone.”

Mr Mathison said he hoped the new statues will help boost tourism in the area.

The Tolkien Triangle, which features several locations with links to the author in Hull, Hornsea, Withernsea, Roos and Kilnsea, is already being promoted by East Riding Council and the visitor destination organisation Visit Hull and East Yorkshire.

Mr Mathison said: “Only last week we hosted a visit by a Brazilian film crew who are working on a four-hour Tolkien documentary destined for worldwide distribution.

“Hopefully, these wonderful new statues will help us bring more of his story to life.”