Editing Lúthien and Beren (section)

=== Personal life === 

{| class="wikitable floatright"
|+ Grave of Edith and J. R. R. Tolkien
|-
| {{center|1=+<br/> Edith Mary Tolkien <br/> '''Luthien''' <br/> 1889–1971 <br/> John Ronald <br/> Reuel Tolkien <br/> '''Beren ''' <br/> 1892–1973 }}
| [[File:Tolkiengrab.jpg|160px|frameless]]
|}

In a letter to his son [[Christopher Tolkien|Christopher]], dated 11 July 1972, Tolkien requested the inscription below for his wife [[Edith Tolkien|Edith]]'s grave "for she was (and knew she was) my Lúthien."<ref name="Letter #340" group=T>{{harvnb|Carpenter|2023|loc=#340 to Christopher Tolkien, 11 July 1972 }}</ref> He added, "I never called Edith ''Luthien'' – but she was the source of the story.... It was first conceived in a small woodland glade filled with hemlocks at Roos in Yorkshire where ... she was able to live with me for a while."<ref name="Letter #340" group=T/> In a footnote to this letter, Tolkien added "she knew the earliest form of the legend...also the poem eventually printed as Aragorn's song."<ref name="Letter #340" group=T/> Particularly affecting for Tolkien was Edith's conversion to the [[Catholic Church]] from the [[Church of England]] for his sake upon their marriage; this was a difficult decision for her that caused her much hardship, paralleling the difficulties and suffering of Lúthien from choosing mortality.{{sfn|Carpenter|1977|p=73}}

Edith and J. R. R. Tolkien lie in [[Wolvercote Cemetery]] in north [[Oxford]].  Their gravestone shows the association of Lúthien with Edith, and Tolkien with Beren.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Birzer |first=Bradley J.  |author-link=Bradley J. Birzer |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TyKDAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT35 |title=J. R. R. Tolkien's Sanctifying Myth: Understanding Middle-earth |date=13 May 2014 |publisher=Open Road Media |isbn=978-1-4976-4891-3 |at=pt. 35}}</ref>