Tree Worship - in Literature

In Literature

• In literature, a mythology was notably developed by J. R. R. Tolkien, his Two Trees of Valinor playing a central role in his mythopoeic cosmogony. Tolkien's 1964 Tree and Leaf combines the allegorical tale Leaf by Niggle and his essay On Fairy-Stories.
• William Butler Yeats describes a "holy tree" in his poem The Two Trees (1893).
• Also in the Lord of the Rings, the White Tree stands symbol to Minas Tirith and Gondor.

In George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series one of the main religions, that of "the old gods" or "the gods of the north" involves sacred groves of trees (godswoods) with a white tree with red leaves at the center, known as the heart tree. Heart trees have faces carved into them, usually dripping red sap. Later the series explores the idea that "green seers" can see through the eyes of such trees, and that their souls inhabit them after death.

• In Laurie Halse Anderson's novel Speak, the main character Melinda Sordino is assigned by her art teacher to make a tree "into a piece of art" (p. 12 Mr. Freeman talking to art class). The tree Melinda tries to draw and sculpt but keeps failing becomes a symbol of Melinda's internal battle of wanting to speak up about the rape that was inflicted upon her but continues to remain silent. When Melinda succeeds in creating a tree (and gets an A+), it symbolizes Melinda, finally speaking out against the injustice.
• In C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia series, talking trees are featured.
• Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson & the Olympians series feature dryads, or spirits of trees.