Who was J.R.R. Tolkien’s wife?

J.R.R. Tolkien’s wife was Edith Tolkien, born Edith Mary Bratt.

Tolkien met Edith when he was a teenager, and they married on 22 March 1916. Their relationship faced opposition from Tolkien’s guardian while he was young, but the couple remained devoted and stayed together until Edith’s death in 1971.

Edith influenced Tolkien’s mythology in a particularly famous way: her dancing in a woodland clearing inspired the image of Lúthien dancing before Beren. Tolkien later connected their relationship with the story of Beren and Lúthien, and the names appear on their gravestone in Oxford.

Edith and Tolkien had four children: John, Michael, Christopher, and Priscilla. Edith was not the same person as Mabel Tolkien, J.R.R. Tolkien’s mother, nor Priscilla, his youngest child.