Letters to
C h r i s t o p h e r To l k i e n
On 8 January 1913, J. R. R. Tolkien and Edith Bratt got engaged. Their relationship inspired the story of Beren and Luthien, one of the great tales of Middle-earth. On the 11th of July, 1973, in a letter* to his son, Tolkien lamented that, “…unlike the story, he couldn't beg for her life in front of Mandos.” John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892 - 1973) served as the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon and Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford, from 1925 to 1945 and Merton Professor of English Language and Literature and Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, from 1945 to 1959. He is best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. * THE LETTERS OF J. R. R. TOLKIEN, GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN, Letter no 340
