Edith Bratt
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Tolkien and Edith first met in 1908, when Edith was 19 years old (Tolkien was 16 years old). A relationship formed between the two; but this relationship became known to Tolkien's guardian, Father Francis Xavier Morgan, who forbade Tolkien to meet Edith until he was 21.
The pair married on 22 March 1916 in a small Catholic church in Warwick, shortly before Tolkien had to leave for France, where he partook in the Battle of the Somme.
Edith Tolkien died on 29 November 1971 and was buried in Wolvercote cemetery, Oxford; Tolkien was buried with her when he died two years later. The epitaph upon their grave mentions 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 Beren.