Edith Tolkien was J.R.R. Tolkien’s wife and inspired the story of Beren and Lúthien.
Tolkien met Edith Bratt when he was a teenager, and they married on 22 March 1916. Their relationship influenced his legendarium. Tolkien associated himself with the mortal hero Beren and Edith with the Elven heroine Lúthien, whose love story becomes one of the central tales of the First Age.
The inspiration was not limited to the characters’ romance. Tolkien connected Edith with Lúthien after seeing her dance in a woodland clearing, an image that recalled a scene in the legend of Beren and Lúthien. The names Beren and Lúthien were later engraved on the couple’s gravestone in Oxford.
Edith and Tolkien had four children. Their son Christopher later became the principal editor and publisher of much of Tolkien’s posthumous writing.