Edith Tolkien
Wife of J.R.R. Tolkien
Edith Mary Tolkien (née Bratt) (January 21, 1889 – November 29, 1971) was the daughter of Frances Bratt and Alfred Frederick Warrilow. She would become J.R.R. Tolkien's wife.
Biography
Edith never knew her father and was brought up in Birmingham by her mother, and cousin Jenny Grove. Francis Bratt died when Edith was 14 and she was sent to the Dresden House, a boarding school where she developed a love for piano and soon moved into a boarding house.
When Tolkien was living at 37 Duchess Road, Edgbaston, Edith was a young female lodger who lived in the bedroom beneath Tolkien and his brother Hilary. At the time Tolkien was 16 and Edith was 19. They quickly became close but when Tolkien's guardian Francis Xavier Morgan found out he forbade contact between them until Tolkien turned 21. During their years apart she got engaged to George Field but when Tolkien sent her a letter on the evening of his twenty-first birthday she broke off her engagement to Field and announced her engagement to Tolkien. Following her engagement she converted to Roman Catholicism.
They were married on Wednesday, 22 March, 1916 in the Church of St Mary Immaculate, in Warwickshire, England. Only a few months later Tolkien was shipped to Étaples, France. Her Husband being in the military during WWI was a very stressful time in her life. She kept a map of France on the wall to help her know where he was. After his return their first child John Tolkien was born on 16 November 1917
While stationed at Kingston upon Hull, Ronald and Edith went on a walk through the woods and she danced for him. He later tells an interviewer Bill Cater, "We walked in a wood where hemlock was growing, a sea of white flowers." This inspired the meeting of Beren and Lúthien. After the war the Tolkiens had 3 more children, Michael, Christopher and Priscilla.
In the 1960s they moved near Bournemouth. Her grandson, Simon Tolkien writes:
Edith Tolkien died on 29 November 1971 at the age of 82 and was buried in Wolvercote Cemetery. J.R.R. Tolkien never referred to Edith as Lúthien, but he considered her as such, so he asked that the name Lúthien be inscribed on her grave. When he died 21 months later he was buried with her and had Beren inscribed on the gravestone.
In the biographical drama film, named Tolkien, she was portrayed by actresses Lily Collins and Mimi Keene.
Referencias
1. Esta ficha se ha importado inicialmente de TolkienGateway.net el día 25/05/2026.
