The name Lúthien appears beside Edith Tolkien’s on her grave in reference to Tolkien’s mythology.
Edith Tolkien died in 1971 and was buried in Wolvercote Cemetery, Oxford. Her gravestone bears her real name and the name Lúthien, an immortal Elf-maiden from Tolkien’s legendarium. J.R.R. Tolkien’s own grave, beside hers, carries the name Beren.
Beren and Lúthien are lovers whose story appears in several forms across Tolkien’s writings. Beren is a mortal Man, while Lúthien is the daughter of the Elf-king Thingol and the Maia Melian. Their love involves exile, danger, and the recovery of a Silmaril.
Tolkien’s relationship with Edith helped inspire the story. The grave names are memorial references, not legal name changes, and they identify the couple with Tolkien’s fictional pair.