J.R.R. Tolkien associated his wife Edith with the character Lúthien in the story of Beren and Lúthien.
Tolkien’s legendarium presents Lúthien as an immortal Elf who loves the mortal man Beren. Together they undertake a quest to recover a Silmaril from the crown of Morgoth. Their story became one of the central love narratives in Tolkien’s mythology and was developed in several literary forms over many years.
The personal association arose from an experience Tolkien had in 1917. He saw Edith dancing in a wooded clearing near Roos in Yorkshire, an event he later connected with the inspiration for Lúthien. Tolkien and Edith’s names were also placed together on their gravestone in Oxford: “Beren” beneath his name and “Lúthien” beneath hers.
Lúthien is sometimes confused with Arwen or Galadriel because all three are important Elven women. Arwen’s love story concerns Aragorn, while Lúthien belongs to the much earlier mythology of the First Age.