Edith Tolkien

Edith Mary Tolkien née Bratt (21 January 1889 – 29 November 1971) was the wife of writer J. R. R. Tolkien and the inspiration for his fictional character Lúthien Tinúviel.

Biography

Early life

Edith Bratt was born in Gloucestershire, the daughter of Frances Bratt, an unmarried shoemaker's daughter. The name of Edith's father remains unknown. She was brought up in Handsworth, a suburb of Birmingham, by her mother and also her cousin, Jennie Grove (related to Sir George Grove).

By 1908 Edith, a talented pianist [("Great War" 2003, pg 12)] had become an orphan. She first met Tolkien in that year, when he and his younger brother Hilary moved into the same boarding house. At the time, Tolkien was 16 years old and Edith was 19. According to Humphrey Carpenter,

"Edith and Ronald took to frequenting Birmingham teashops, especially one which had a balcony overlooking the pavement. There they would sit and throw sugarlumps into the hats of passers-by, moving to the next table when the sugar bowl was empty. ...With two people of their personalities and in their position, romance was bound to flourish. Both were orphans in need of affection, and they found that they could give it to each other. During the summer of 1909, they decided that they were in love." [Humphrey Carpenter, "Tolkien; The Authorised Biography," page 44.]

However, before the end of the year the relationship had become known to Tolkien's guardian, Fr. Francis Xavier Morgan of the Birmingham Oratory. Viewing Edith as a distraction from Tolkien's schoolwork and bothered by her Anglican religion, he forbade any contact between them until Tolkien became a legal adult at twenty-one. [("Great War" 2003, pg 12)]

Tolkien grudgingly obeyed this instruction to the letter while Father Morgan's guardianship lasted. However on the evening of his twenty-first birthday, Tolkien wrote a letter to Edith, who had since moved to Cheltenham. [("Great War" 2003, pg 29)] It contained a declaration of his love and asked her to marry him. She replied saying that she was already engaged but had become so because she had believed Tolkien had forgotten her. Within a week, Tolkien had journeyed to Cheltenham [("Great War" 2003, pg 29 & 43)] where Edith met him at the railway station. That day, Edith returned her ring and announced her engagement to Tolkien instead. [("Biography" 1977, pg 67-69)]

Marriage

Following their engagement in January 1913, Edith announced that she was converting to the Roman Catholic Church at Tolkien's insistence. Her landlord, a staunch Protestant, was outraged and instantly turned her out of the house. [("Biography" 1977, pg 73)] They were married in the Catholic church of St Mary Immaculate [http://www.stmaryimmaculate.org.uk/] in Warwick, England, on Wednesday 22 March 1916. [("Great War" 2003, pg 134)] Their week-long honeymoon was spent at Clevedon, in North Somerset, and included a visit to the Cheddar Caves. [("Great War" 2003, pg 134)]

A great number of letters dating to the period 1913–1918 sent by Tolkien to Edith exist in the Tolkien family archives but, due to their personal nature, only a very small number of these were selected for publication in Humphrey Carpenter's book (see below). [("Letters" 1981, pg 1)]

Soon after their marriage, Tolkien commenced a course at the British Army signals school at Otley, and Edith moved to be as close to his military camp as possible, moving with her cousin Jennie Grove to a cottage in the village of Great Haywood, where she lived from April 1916 to February 1917. [("Great War" 2003, pg 134 & 231)] Due to their wedding occurring during Lent, only the Marriage Service and not the Nuptial Mass had been performed; the couple received a nuptial blessing at the Roman Catholic church of St John the Baptist, in Great Haywood. [("Great War" 2003, pg 134)]

Their first child, John Francis Reuel (16 November 1917–22 January 2003) was born in Cheltenham. After World War I, they had three more: Michael Hilary Reuel (October 1920–1984), Christopher John Reuel (1924–) and Priscilla Anne Reuel (1929–).

Later life and death

Tolkien's professional career at the universities of Leeds and Oxford resulted in the family moving to these towns. After he retired, he and Edith moved to a location near Bournemouth, where they were living sometime around 1968. Their grandson Simon Tolkien states on his website that the preference for Bournemouth was Edith's, and that she loved spending time at the Miramar Hotel there. [http://www.simontolkien.com/jrrtolkien.html]

Edith Tolkien died on 29 November 1971 at the age of 82, and was buried in Wolvercote Cemetery, Oxford; Tolkien was buried with her when he died twenty months later.

Below the names on their grave are the names of the characters of Beren and Lúthien: in Tolkien's Middle-earth mythology, Lúthien was the most beautiful of all the Children of Ilúvatar, and forsook her immortality for her love of the mortal warrior Beren.

Notes

References

*"Biography": cite book
first = Humphrey
last = Carpenter
authorlink = Humphrey Carpenter
year = 1977
title = Tolkien: A Biography
location = London
publisher = George Allen & Unwin
id = ISBN 0-04-928037-6
*"Letters": cite book
author = Carpenter, Humphrey and Tolkien, Christopher (eds.)
year = 1981
title = The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien
location = London
publisher = George Allen & Unwin
id = ISBN 0-04-826005-3
*"Great War": cite book
author = Garth, John
year = 2003
title =
location = London
publisher = HarperCollins
id = ISBN 0-00-711952-6