Taliesin’s Vision: The World as It is Meant to Be
The Vision of Taliesin
I have seen a land, a land of shining goodness where each man protects his brother’s dignity as readily as his own, where war and want have ceased and all tribes live under the same law of love and honor. I have seen a land bright with truth, where a man’s word is his pledge and falsehood is banished, where children sleep safe in their mother’s arms and never know fear or pain.
I have seen a land where kings extend their hands in justice rather than reach for the sword; where mercy, kindness, and compassion flow like deep water, and where men revere virtue, revere truth, revere beauty above comfort, pleasure or selfish gain.
A land where peace reigns in the hearts of men. Where faith blazes like a beacon from every hill and love like a fire from every hearth; where the True God is worshiped and His ways acclaimed by all.
I have seen this land. I have seen it and my heart yearns for it.
“In the beginning was the Word”
The word on the page is everything. The written word, the act of wrestling sound and speech into something we can read and comprehend, holds an almost supernatural power in our world. At least, it should. And from the beginning, Christians have been known for their utter dedication to the preservation and dissemination of the written word. First and foremost, God’s word, but it goes far beyond that.
Contrary to unflattering modern stereotypes, Christians have been at the forefront of the advancement of literature, books, and education from the very beginning. Christians care about the written word, because we care about The Word. As believers, we care about the written word because it is the lifeblood for humanity to know and follow the God who created language for our good. So, yes, in a manner of speaking, the word on the page is everything.
In the right hands, words can teach, they can entertain, they can enlighten, and they can encourage. I believe good words, written with goodness and truth, are in some ways the highest calling we can follow. The right words written in the right way can change the way we see the world, guiding us towards the light. Guiding us to the Great Light Himself.
The Kingdom of God through the eyes of Taliesin
In The Pendragon Cycle, Stephen R. Lawhead’s epic retelling of the story of Arthurian legend, we are introduced to the bard Taliesin. He is a singer, a poet, and most importantly, a prophet. His life and vision pave the way for Merlin and eventually King Arthur. Though raised in pagan druidism, when he encounters the True God, he easily hails him as Lord. It is with this new faith that he is given a vision of the world to come. A world he hopes to usher into existence.
Near the end of the first book in the series, Taliesin speaks his vision of the Kingdom of Summer aloud for the first time. From my first reading, his words have pierced me like an arrow. There are very few passages in literature that have worked their magic on me as profoundly as Lawhead did with Taliesin’s vision of the coming kingdom.
I believe when Lawhead penned Taliesin’s vision, the words at the opening of this article, he found the right words and wrote them in exactly the right way. The world he describes is almost unspeakably pure; something beyond what we experience in the here and now. Yet at the same time, this “Kingdom of Summer” that Taliesin describes is tantalizingly aspirational. It lies just out of our reach, but we can feel the trueness of the thing.
I have written often about how often art (movies, books, music) brings me to tears. Great art has this capacity. It can reach our emotional core just as easily as it connects with our mind. I was a young man when I first read The Pendragon Cycle – early in my college days. By that time, I had traveled to Modor with Frodo and Sam. I had wept with Lucy and Susan as the White Witch sacrificed the great Lion on the Stone Table. I had experienced some of the best the world of imaginative fiction and fantasy had to offer.
Even so, the beauty of Taliesin’s vision stopped me in my tracks. I was floored by its simplicity and power. The end of the first book of The Pendragon Cycle is bittersweet, to say the least. The events that follow Taliesin’s vision imbue his words with both sorrow and hope. All of this worked its way in my heart, leaving a lasting imprint that will never go away.
Taliesin’s Kingdom of Summer has seen many incarnations. It is Aslan’s Country. It is the “far green country under a swift sunrise”. But it is even more than that. The Kingdom of Summer is a reflection of the new Heaven and new Earth. It is the Kingdom here and now and the Kingdom now and not yet. Taliesin’s vision gives us a roadmap to see this world made real. It is the fruit of the Spirit given flesh and bones. This vision, with clarity and brevity, captures the soul of the Gospel in a way that I had never encountered in literature. To this day, it is without equal. Or is it?
The Vision of Taliesin Comes to Life
Near the end of 2025, The Daily Wire released their 7-part epic fantasy television series, The Pendragon Cycle: The Rise of the Merlin. You can read my review here. It is a triumph. A monumental achievement in faith-filled filmmaking, the likes we have not seen in some time. (You can stream it on Amazon Prime.)
Of all the scenes that I had dreamt for decades to see brought to life, the vision of Taliesin was at the top of my list. I felt that if the filmmakers handled this scene with the seriousness and reverence it deserved, the series would be a success. Near the end of episode two, Taliesin reveals his vision of the Kingdom of Summer. And once again, I was emotionally and spiritually stopped in my tracks. I cried watching that scene. To be honest, I am tearing up a little writing about it.
While the word on the page is everything, writer and director Jeremy Boreing is able to take those precious, Truth-drenched words, and augment them with sound and visuals to match the profundity of what Taliesin is saying. The words are essentially the same. Their power is their own. Yet the show matches those words with stunning vistas and a score so emotionally transcendent, it left me a total mess by the end. Great art can do this. These words, this music, and those visuals all serve to reveal different facets about The Kingdom of Summer than what the words on the page alone could ever hope to.
The Kingdom of Summer, The Kingdom of Heaven
Reading those words and now watching this scene, I am reminded of a few things. Things that both the books and the television series hold as essential in how we view the world. The Kingdom of Summer, the Kingdom of Heaven is both here and coming. We live in the time between times. Jesus (the Great Light) ushered in the Kingdom with his life, death and resurrection, yet the ultimate fulfillment of His kingdom will only come at the end of the age. As believers, we have seen the Kingdom of heaven and our hearts yearn for it. And our yearning should spur us to action.
We should protect our brother’s dignity as readily as our own. We should strive to live under the same law of love and honor. Our word should be our pledge. Falsehood should be banished. Our children should feel safe in their mother’s arms – a concept so simple that it should come as naturally as breathing, yet we are reminded daily that it is not.
The Kingdom of Summer calls us to live in such a way that mercy, kindness, and compassion flow like deep water. It calls us to revere virtue, truth, and beauty above comfort, pleasure, or selfish gain. This kingdom, the here and not yet, is a land where peace reigns in the hearts of men. “A kingdom where faith blazes like a beacon from every hill and love like a fire from every hearth; where the True God is worshiped and His ways acclaimed by all.”
We do not live in that world. The True God is not worshipped by all. But that is the vision. The mission. The divine purpose for which we have been created. So, Taliesin’s vision rings out all the louder. It calls us to recommit ourselves to Kingdom living, in every aspect of our lives. He calls us to reject the siren call of the void – the apathy, the anger, and the hopelessness. Our lives were made for something grander and more beautiful than that. Taliesin’s vision should inspire us to build the Kingdom of Summer, the Kingdom of Heaven here and now, while we yearn for our Great Good God to “make all things new” as He has promised.
Let us take up the words of Taliesin and make them our own: “I have seen this land. I have seen it and my heart yearns for it.” This is where we begin. Let us make our lives “shine like the sun so that all men may see and know what the world was meant to be.” The Kingdom of Heaven is here and now. Let us live like it.
- Taliesin’s Vision: The World as It is Meant to Be - September 14, 2026
- Reject the Void: Overcoming the Darkness of the Age - August 21, 2026
- 2,500: A Playlist For the Great Unknowns - August 17, 2026
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I’ve also been deeply affected by Taliesin’s vision of the Kingdom of Summer since I first read it over 30 years ago.
I always found myself troubled because it never really came to be in the series. The idealist in me wanted to see a point where it existed, but all we ever got was a close approximation of it.
Rereading the series in my early 50s instead of as a teenager, I’m taken by the idea, which is kind of in the book, that The Kingdom of Summer is the world as it was created to be—as it is supposed to be—and we’re never really going to make it there, though we are called to continue to seek it throughout.