Edith Tolkien inspired J.R.R. Tolkien’s character Lúthien, according to the inscription on Tolkien’s gravestone. Edith’s own gravestone inscription includes “Lúthien,” while Tolkien’s includes “Beren.”
Beren and Lúthien are central figures in Tolkien’s First Age mythology. Beren is a mortal Man who loves Lúthien, an immortal Elven princess, and their story includes the theft of a Silmaril from Morgoth’s crown.
Tolkien and Edith Bratt met as teenagers and married in 1916. Their relationship became one of the personal experiences associated with the emotional core of the Beren and Lúthien story. Tolkien wrote versions of the tale across many years.
The identification is not based only on later fan interpretation: Tolkien and Edith’s shared gravestone explicitly uses the names Beren and Lúthien. Their son Christopher later published a standalone edition of the legend in 2017.