Stephen Lawhead’s books have sold thousands of copies worldwide and inspired many readers. He has won a variety of awards, including the Christy Award in 2008. What makes his fantasy books so engaging?
How Did Stephen Lawhead’s Writing Career Start?
Lawhead was born in 1950 in Nebraska to Robert and Lois Lawhead. Lawhead grew up within the Baptist tradition. Lawhead read C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, George MacDonald, and other Christian fantasy writers in his youth. These writers enriched Lawhead’s imagination and inspired him to pursue a vocation as a writer. The different writers showed him that it was possible to be an intelligent, compassionate Christian who wrote fantasy books for people from all walks of life. When reading Lawhead’s work, one can find important theological themes while being imaginatively captivated by a fantasy story exploring what it means to be human. This is a great example of what makes Lawhead’s work so compelling.
During his college years at Kearney State College, Lawhead wrote poetry, short stories, and a weekly humor column. Writing in these different genres encouraged Lawhead to find his voice. Lawhead would go on to become a prolific writer of fantasy, science fiction, and historical fiction.
Lawhead later became a confirmed Anglican with his wife, Alice, whom he married in 1972. While pursuing a master’s degree in theology at Northern Seminary in Chicago, Lawhead was offered a job as an editor for Campus Life Magazine. Lawhead wrote about many subjects and conducted numerous interviews while working for the magazine. After working for the magazine, Lawhead moved to Memphis, Tennessee, to pursue a music career. After limited success, Lawhead turned to writing fiction to support his family.
When Did Stephen Lawhead Start Writing Fantasy?
Lawhead’s first book, In The Hall of the Dragon King, was published in 1981 by Thomas Nelson. Readers’ positive response to this fantasy work gave him the confidence to continue writing fiction.
After moving to the U.K. with his family in 1986, Lawhead studied Celtic lore at Oxford University. While Lawhead was studying at Oxford University, he began working on his Pendragon Cycle. The first book, Taliesin, was published in 1999, followed by Merlin, Arthur, Pendragon, and Grail. In the Pendragon Cycle, Lawhead brings together the myth of Atlantis, early Arthurian sources, Celtic Mythology, and Christian theology. The Daily Wire is currently working on a TV series based on Lawhead’s fantasy series, produced by Jeremy Boering.
Lawhead’s most recent work is a fantasy trilogy inspired by Celtic Mythology called Eirlandia. The first book, In The Region of the Summer Stars, was published in 2018, followed by In The Land of the Everliving in 2019 and 2020. The fantasy series has inspired various works (including my book Tír na nÓg, published by Impspired in 2022).
How Has Stephen Lawhead Continued in Music?
Lawhead sought a career in music after college when he found his vocation as a writer. Though his first experience playing in a band didn’t go as hoped, Lawhead still cultivated his gift as a musician. Before founding Ariel Records in 1980, Lawhead managed the acclaimed Christian rock band DeGermo and Key for a few years. Ariel Records released one album, Diamonds in the Rough by Lindy Hearne, before dissolving in 1981.
Lawhead’s fantasy books have inspired a variety of albums by musicians Jeff Johnson and Brian Dunning, each serving as a great companion to Lawhead’s books. The albums include:
- The multi-volume Song From Albion
- Byzantium
- Patrick
- The multi-volume King Raven
- Eirlandia
Lawhead returned to his association with Eddie De Garmo decades after their music work when he wrote a graphic novel based on DeGarmo’s Hero: The Rock Opera. The graphic novel was published in 2003. This creative project of Lawhead’s was a big deal at the time because Michael Tait, one of the members of DC Talk, played the character of Jesus.
How Has Stephen Lawhead Modeled Writing Christian Fantasy?
Influenced by Tolkien, Lewis, and MacDonald, Lawhead has written compelling fantasies for people of all worldviews. In his work, readers can find particular theological themes such as faith, hope, and love. As a historian of Celtic lore, Lawhead can weave myth and history together in his books that engage the imagination and give spiritual nourishment.
According to scholar Tom Shippey, J.R.R. Tolkien changed the fantasy genre of Christian literature when The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings were published. Tolkien has greatly influenced Lawhead and is in the same tradition as him in incorporating ancient myths in his work. For example, Lawhead uses the Atlantis myth in Taliesin. As in the ancient myth, the whole kingdom of Atlantis is destroyed. In Lawhead’s story, only a small remnant survives and sails to the British Isles. From the remnant survives Charis, who marries the bard Taliesin in the story. Through their marriage, the good wizard Merlin is born. Merlin becomes the mentor of King Arthur. Both are Christ-like archetypes because they seek to establish goodness, music, and love in a fallen, broken world.
Christ calls writers to glorify Him with their gift, no matter the genre, and to communicate goodness, beauty, and truth. Lawhead is a good example of a writer who has done this in his writing career. The ancient bardic storytelling tradition inspires his books, and they also explore the existential reality of suffering and evil while conveying how the goodness and love of Christ triumph over darkness and evil. The question of how a good God can exist while there is so much evil and suffering in the world is one that every person, whatever their worldview, asks themselves. Lawhead’s books, as well as Tolkien, Lewis, and MacDonald’s, don’t try and rationalize the problem of evil by a theodicy but convey that the issue of evil is a mystery, triumphed over to the Incarnation, Death, and Resurrection of Christ.
How Has Stephen Lawhead Modeled the Christian Community?
From the first century to today, there have been great examples of poets, musicians, writers, activists, clergy, and visual artists who have modeled what a true Christian community looks like. In this context, the Christian community is where people find helpful constructive criticism, encouragement, honesty, and inspiration.
Many book clubs, college courses, conferences, and literary groups, such as The Chrysostom Society, have all been inspired by the correlation between art and faith. The Chrysostom Society, inspired by fifth-century church father John Chrysostom, was founded in Texas in the 1980s. Over the years, its members have included well-known writers such as Richard J. Foster, Eugene Peterson, Madeleine L’Engle, Robert Siegel, and Sara Arthur. Lawhead became an active member in 1986. The literary group helped support Lawhead while pursuing an academic degree at Oxford University and writing various books. He worked with the group on several books, including More Than Words, Stories for the Christian Year, and Carnage at Christhaven.
This literary group is a good example of what it looks like for Christians to support each other in their artistic pursuits truly and the important correlation between art and faith. Art is a gift from God to humanity. Through the sacramental gift of art, we can understand, with our hearts and minds, that although the world is fallen and broken, all will be made right one day. Until that day, when the marriage of Heaven and Earth comes together, we have glimpses of what it will be like through great works of art. Lawhead’s literary legacy as a compelling fantasy writer affirms that.
Photo Credit:©GettyImages/fergregory
Justin Wiggins is an author who works and lives in the primitive, majestic, beautiful mountains of North Carolina. He graduated with his Bachelor's in English Literature, with a focus on C.S. Lewis studies, from Montreat College in May 2018. His first book was Surprised by Agape, published by Grant Hudson of Clarendon House Publications. His second book, Surprised By Myth, was co-written with Grant Hudson and published in 2021. Many of his recent books (Marty & Irene, Tír na nÓg, Celtic Twilight, Celtic Song, Ragnarok, Celtic Dawn) are published by Steve Cawte of Impspired.
Wiggins has also had poems and other short pieces published by Clarendon House Publications, Sehnsucht: The C.S. Lewis Journal, and Sweetycat Press. Justin has a great zeal for life, work, community, writing, literature, art, pubs, bookstores, coffee shops, and for England, Scotland, and Ireland.
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