The Rivendell Center is an academic center, based in New York City, dedicated to exploring and promoting the classical-Christian inheritance of Western civilization. It is inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien’s vision of Rivendell, the kingdom of the Elves, in The Lord of the Rings, a haven of creativity, beauty, wisdom, and friendship.
Hosting dinners, salons, lectures, film screenings, academic study, and other initiatives, the Rivendell Center introduces the story of our civilization to college students and young professionals in New York and to audiences around the world.
Initiative
Storytelling Through Film
The signature storytelling initiative of the Rivendell Center is its YouTube history channel, History and the Human Story. Through this initiative, the center will produce documentary and narrative films that will help to tell the story of our civilization: most importantly, the impact of the Judeo-Christian tradition on Western civilization and the American political order. Several short films already have been released and more are in production.
Film ProjectBenjamin Rush
The American Revolution’s Indispensable Doctor
Film ProjectThe Gift of the Italians
A Traveler’s Guide to Western Civilization from Cicero to Sophia Loren
Film ProjectThe War For Middle‑Earth
J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Confront the Gathering Storm
Initiative
Lecture Series
The aim of our lecture series is to reintroduce young people to the great cultural inheritance of our civilization: to the achievements in music, the arts, literature, philosophy, politics and other areas that have enabled human freedom and creativity to flourish like nowhere else.
Lecture SeriesCicero in the City
Anticipating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the Cicero in the City lecture series will explore the ideals, institutions, and individuals who built Western civilization and the American republic.
Lecture SeriesThe Lincoln Lectures
Inspired by the eloquence and statesmanship of Abraham Lincoln, the Lincoln Lectures will explore the great speeches of Western civilization: from The Apology of Socrates to Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address to Winston Churchill’s “We Will Never Surrender” speech at the start of the Second World War…