Middle-earth’s best First Age story wouldn’t exist had J.R.R. Tolkien not met Edith Bratt in 1908.

J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth mythology includes several epic and powerful love stories. Aragorn and Arwen are probably the best known thanks to the Lord of the Rings films, plus Sam and Rosie get married at the end, and the extended editions also feature Éowyn and Faramir’s relationship, though that one was a bit rushed even in the books. But book fans also know the stories of Tuor and Idril, Elwing and Eärendil, and the rather more tragic story of Aegnor and Andreth, among others.

The love story that meant the most to Tolkien himself, though, was the story of Beren and Lúthien, which was directly inspired by the writer’s own life.

The story of Beren and Lúthien is one of very few stories about the First and Second Ages of Middle-earth told, in a brief and summarized form, in The Lord of the Rings itself. Fuller versions can be found in various of Tolkien’s posthumously published works, mainly in a chapter of The Silmarillion and in a volume dedicated entirely to them, Beren and Lúthien, as well as shorter sections in The Book of Lost Tales.

Beren was a mortal Man from a royal house in Beleriand, an area to the west of Middle-earth in the First Age, much of which is under the sea by the time of The Lord of the Rings in the Third Age. For various reasons he ended up living as an exile and an outlaw, and came to the area of Beleriand called Doriath, which was ruled over by Sindarian Elf King Thingol.

In Doriath, Beren came across the king’s daughter Lúthien dancing in a woodland glade and fell madly in love with her, giving her the nickname Tinúviel, meaning Nightingale. But her father Thingol did not want them to marry because Beren was mortal, so, presumably to avoid constant pestering from his daughter, he set Beren what he thought was an impossible task and said Beren could marry his daughter only if he accomplished it.

The Dark Lord Morgoth, Sauron’s predecessor and superior and one of the Ainur (immortal angelic beings) – so, basically, Tolkien’s version of Satan – was at the time holed up in his fortress of Angband, in northern Middle-earth. He had stolen the three Silmarils, beautiful jewels made by the Elf Fëanor that contained the Light of the now-destroyed Two Trees of Valinor (the light of Creation, essentially). Morgoth now wore the Silmarils in his Iron Crown, so Thingol told Beren, “Bring to me in your hand a Silmaril from Morgoth’s crown; and then, if she will, Lúthien may set her hand in yours.”

Undeterred, Beren set off to do as he was asked, and when his friend and companion Finrod was killed in the process, Lúthien came along to join him on the quest herself. Many misadventures later, they managed to get hold of a Silmaril, though both the jewel and Beren’s hand were bitten off and swallowed by a giant wolf and he and Lúthien had to be rescued by giant Eagles (a favorite story beat of Tolkien’s). However, on their return to Thingol, they pointed out that Beren did indeed have one of the Silmarils in his hand, even if the hand in question was no longer on his person, and they were allowed to get married. They had a son, Dior, and lived together for some time, until the giant wolf turned up again and Beren and Thingol went off to hunt it. They killed the wolf and recovered the Silmaril, but Beren was mortally wounded in the process, and after he died, Lúthien died of grief as well. They came back to life, thanks to the sympathy of Mandos, the keeper of the Houses of the Dead, but eventually both died a mortal death.

Aragorn describes Beren and Lúthien’s story as “sad” in The Fellowship of the Ring, though as Middle-earth stories go, it’s actually quite cheerful. Tolkien’s own love story, thankfully, was even happier, though it was not short of drama, and it directly inspired his fictional creations.

Tolkien’s father died when he was four years old, and his mother died when he was 12. Ronald (he was known by his second name) and his younger brother Hilary became wards of a close friend of his mother’s, Father Morgan, a Catholic priest at The Oratory in Birmingham. By the time Tolkien was 16, he and his brother were living in a boarding house run by a parishioner of the Oratory named Mrs. Faulkner, under the legal guardianship of Father Morgan.

It was here, in 1908, that Tolkien first met pianist Edith Bratt. Edith had been raised by her single mother Frances, who had died when she was 14. Now 19, Edith had finished school and was under the legal guardianship of a solicitor called Stephen Gateley. She was lodging at Mrs. Faulkner’s while working out how to continue her career as a pianist or piano teacher.

Tolkien and Edith became very close and by the summer of 1909 they had fallen in love. However, when Father Morgan found out in the autumn, he was not best pleased. He thought Edith was a distraction from Tolkien’s schoolwork, and he was not keen on the idea of his Roman Catholic charge being involved with an older (illegitimate) Anglican girl. In January 1910, Father Morgan forbade Tolkien to have any contact with Edith at all while under his guardianship. Tolkien reluctantly obeyed, telling his son Michael in a letter years later that “it was extremely hard, painful and bitter.” He did not communicate with Edith at all from that point until he turned 21 and became a legal adult in 1913.