Tolkien’s character Lúthien shares a gravestone inscription with the name Beren.
J.R.R. Tolkien arranged for the names Beren and Lúthien to be placed on the gravestone he shares with his wife, Edith Tolkien, in Wolvercote Cemetery, Oxford. Tolkien’s legendarium tells of Beren, a mortal Man, and Lúthien, an immortal Elven princess. Their love story includes Beren’s attempt to recover a Silmaril from the crown of Morgoth.
The tale appears in different forms across Tolkien’s writings. It is central to The Silmarillion and also received a standalone posthumous publication, Beren and Lúthien, edited by Christopher Tolkien in 2017. Tolkien’s own relationship with Edith is widely understood to have influenced the story, although the fictional narrative is not a direct biography.
Lúthien is sometimes confused with Arwen because both are Elven women connected to mortal Men. Arwen’s partner is Aragorn, while Lúthien’s beloved is Beren. The gravestone names therefore point specifically to the earlier First Age couple.