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The Gallant Edith Bratt: J.R.R. Tolkien's Inspiration
Who was Edith Bratt? Millions saw Hollywood's fantasy version of J.R.R. Tolkien's one and only love, Edith Bratt, in the 2019 movie, Tolkien. Fact, though, is stranger than fiction, and more interesting. Edith's story reveals a gallant heroine suffering under "The Shadow of the Past." Edith was Ronald's "lover," and much like her mother, Edith risked all for the man she loved. New research finds a financially independent and strong woman who was not only John Ronald's equal, but his muse, his anchor of stability in the present, and his hope for the future.
This presentation of Edith's life presents a new look at the previously censored depth of her passion with Ronald Tolkien that was ignited in 1909 at the Faulkner boarding house in Birmingham. The blow of their separation from 1910 to 1913 is seen as the likely impetus to Ronald Tolkien's escape into Fantasy with his invented languages, mythology, and art. Their reunion and commitment to a life together was the incentive that saved Ronald Tolkien from his years of partying and pranks in Oxford. Tolkien then imagined a new life in enchanted Kortirion/Warwick with Edith, lauded in poetry and blessed by the Elves. When World War I threatened to void all they had waited for, they became for each other the promise of a seemingly impossible future. Keeping a broader biographical scope leads to a recalibration of the importance and contributions of Tolkien's literary group, the TCBS, previously fostered by a tight focus on Tolkien's academic pursuits.
Admirers, enthusiasts, and students of Tolkien will find much new material to enrich their understanding and appreciation of Tolkien. Placing the development of John Ronald Tolkien's Elvish languages, mythology, and art during the crucial years of 1916-18 in a new biographical context that includes the importance and significance of Edith Bratt culminates in the pivotal story of Lúthien and Beren with new unsuspected sources and the complementary artwork of The Fair Towns of Holy Tol Eressëa. A fresh awareness of the compelling and pervasive influence and effect of Tolkien's biography on his oeuvre suggests new views and possibilities for further investigations.
This presentation of Edith's life presents a new look at the previously censored depth of her passion with Ronald Tolkien that was ignited in 1909 at the Faulkner boarding house in Birmingham. The blow of their separation from 1910 to 1913 is seen as the likely impetus to Ronald Tolkien's escape into Fantasy with his invented languages, mythology, and art. Their reunion and commitment to a life together was the incentive that saved Ronald Tolkien from his years of partying and pranks in Oxford. Tolkien then imagined a new life in enchanted Kortirion/Warwick with Edith, lauded in poetry and blessed by the Elves. When World War I threatened to void all they had waited for, they became for each other the promise of a seemingly impossible future. Keeping a broader biographical scope leads to a recalibration of the importance and contributions of Tolkien's literary group, the TCBS, previously fostered by a tight focus on Tolkien's academic pursuits.
Admirers, enthusiasts, and students of Tolkien will find much new material to enrich their understanding and appreciation of Tolkien. Placing the development of John Ronald Tolkien's Elvish languages, mythology, and art during the crucial years of 1916-18 in a new biographical context that includes the importance and significance of Edith Bratt culminates in the pivotal story of Lúthien and Beren with new unsuspected sources and the complementary artwork of The Fair Towns of Holy Tol Eressëa. A fresh awareness of the compelling and pervasive influence and effect of Tolkien's biography on his oeuvre suggests new views and possibilities for further investigations.
- GenresBiography
286 pages, Paperback
Published August 15, 2021
36 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 16, 2022
I really enjoyed the alternative views of the authors on many aspects of Edith's (and Ronald's) life. Unfortunately, I didn't like the way the information was presented at all. I fell like only 30% of the book was actually about Edith, 60% concerned what Tolkien did (paintings, poems, war...) and the rest were random fun facts about people living somewhere. I liked the chapters about Edith's childhood and youth best and then got really disappointed.
The writing is very repetitive with information being repeated again and again in exactly the same phrasing over and over again. The authors jump back in forth on the timeline which confused me a lot.
The writing is very repetitive with information being repeated again and again in exactly the same phrasing over and over again. The authors jump back in forth on the timeline which confused me a lot.
August 17, 2025
https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/the-gallant-edith-bratt-j-r-r-tolkiens-inspiration-by-nancy-bunting-and-seamus-hamill-keats/
Back in 2020, I read an earlier version of this, and I wrote:
[start]
This fascinating 185-page article about Edith Bratt, wife of J.R.R. Tolkien, was published online by the Journal of Tolkien Studies a couple of weeks ago, almost immediately withdrawn, I guess because the presentation was marred by some editing and formatting errors, and then republished with one of the original authors removed. There’s probably a story there, but it’s none of my business. I read it over an insomniac night, and it did not help me to go back to sleep. It’s a scholarly article rather than a monograph, but I am counting it as a book anyway.
Most Tolkien fans will be familiar with the received version of the history of the writer and his wife (as depicted in the recent film starring Lily Collins as Edith, which incidentally I loved). They met as teenage orphaned lodgers in Birmingham; she was a couple of years older, and a Protestant; Tolkien’s guardian, a Catholic priest, forbade him to have any further contact with her until he reached the age of 21 in 1913; when he got back in touch she was engaged to someone else, but broke it off to be with him and they married in 1916, just before he was posted to France for war duty. You may have seen the recent biopic, which I watched on my last transatlantic flight (and enjoyed).
When I reviewed John Garth’s Tolkien and the Great War, I commented that “I would like to know more about the effect of Tolkien’s relationship with his wife Edith, who he was courting and marrying at this time [the war years], on his writing. Perhaps there is little to say, or to be discovered.” Well, it turns out that there was plenty to be discovered and to say.
Bunting looks in intense geographical and genealogical detail at Edith’s Midlands background. She was the daughter of a businessman and his wife’s maid; much of her childhood and early adult life revolved around evading the stigma of illegitimacy (she did not even tell Tolkien until after they were married) but she also inherited her father’s fortune and so was able to support Tolkien during their early married life, until his academic career took off.
The authors make a compelling argument that previous writers (notably Carpenter and Garth) have neglected the importance for Tolkien’s life and writing of Edith and their relationship, concentrating instead on his male friends. Indeed, my father, commenting on Carpenter’s biography, wrote in 1980:
…the relationship between Tolkien & his wife begins romantically, in their waiting 3 years for each other. Yet she wasn’t really suited to be a don’s wife. She disliked his friendship w CS Lewis, & he evidently told her to lump it. She was happy only at the v. end, when they lived in Bournemouth. Yet through it all he was fond of her – & presumably she of him, tho’ the author doesn’t offer evidence on this.
Thanks to their research, it becomes clear just how important the early separation from Edith, and their reunion, were for Tolkien’s creativity, and how his emotional state translates into his early work (seeing Warwick – of all places! – as a mythical city). There are some other fascinating insights as well – his mother’s mental lapses in the final stages of her illness perhaps informing some of the depictions of dissociation in Tolkien’s work; also a reference to someone else’s research on the inspiration for the Houses of Healing in Minas Tirith. Also this led me to the research of Seamus Hamill-Keays on the Welsh inspiration for Buckland.
The whole thing is forensically researched and illustrated. Utterly absorbing if you are interested in Tolkien, and I think probably even if you are not you’ll find it a nice piece of biographical research on the life of a young woman born at the end of the nineteenth century.
Edited to add: The revised version of the article has also been withdrawn from the Journal of Tolkien Studies website. I hope it will reappear in some form someday.
[end]
I’m glad to say that the following year, 2021, it was properly published in the Cormarë series of Tolkieniana, with I think a bit more circumstantial detail and a delightful reconstruction of the episode where Edith danced for her husband in the woods at Dent’s Garth in 1917. It’s well worth getting if you want to see the most important feminine influences on Tolkien, whose story tends to get told in male terms.
It’s not perfect – the writing style is a tad clunky and in places repetitive, and it ends with an odd fixation on Tolkien’s knowledge of Sanskrit – of course he knew some, he was a philologist; but that doesn’t mean it was quite at the forefront of his mind all the time. But for Tolkienists, whether dilettantes like me or more serious folks, it’s a great read.
Back in 2020, I read an earlier version of this, and I wrote:
[start]
This fascinating 185-page article about Edith Bratt, wife of J.R.R. Tolkien, was published online by the Journal of Tolkien Studies a couple of weeks ago, almost immediately withdrawn, I guess because the presentation was marred by some editing and formatting errors, and then republished with one of the original authors removed. There’s probably a story there, but it’s none of my business. I read it over an insomniac night, and it did not help me to go back to sleep. It’s a scholarly article rather than a monograph, but I am counting it as a book anyway.
Most Tolkien fans will be familiar with the received version of the history of the writer and his wife (as depicted in the recent film starring Lily Collins as Edith, which incidentally I loved). They met as teenage orphaned lodgers in Birmingham; she was a couple of years older, and a Protestant; Tolkien’s guardian, a Catholic priest, forbade him to have any further contact with her until he reached the age of 21 in 1913; when he got back in touch she was engaged to someone else, but broke it off to be with him and they married in 1916, just before he was posted to France for war duty. You may have seen the recent biopic, which I watched on my last transatlantic flight (and enjoyed).
When I reviewed John Garth’s Tolkien and the Great War, I commented that “I would like to know more about the effect of Tolkien’s relationship with his wife Edith, who he was courting and marrying at this time [the war years], on his writing. Perhaps there is little to say, or to be discovered.” Well, it turns out that there was plenty to be discovered and to say.
Bunting looks in intense geographical and genealogical detail at Edith’s Midlands background. She was the daughter of a businessman and his wife’s maid; much of her childhood and early adult life revolved around evading the stigma of illegitimacy (she did not even tell Tolkien until after they were married) but she also inherited her father’s fortune and so was able to support Tolkien during their early married life, until his academic career took off.
The authors make a compelling argument that previous writers (notably Carpenter and Garth) have neglected the importance for Tolkien’s life and writing of Edith and their relationship, concentrating instead on his male friends. Indeed, my father, commenting on Carpenter’s biography, wrote in 1980:
…the relationship between Tolkien & his wife begins romantically, in their waiting 3 years for each other. Yet she wasn’t really suited to be a don’s wife. She disliked his friendship w CS Lewis, & he evidently told her to lump it. She was happy only at the v. end, when they lived in Bournemouth. Yet through it all he was fond of her – & presumably she of him, tho’ the author doesn’t offer evidence on this.
Thanks to their research, it becomes clear just how important the early separation from Edith, and their reunion, were for Tolkien’s creativity, and how his emotional state translates into his early work (seeing Warwick – of all places! – as a mythical city). There are some other fascinating insights as well – his mother’s mental lapses in the final stages of her illness perhaps informing some of the depictions of dissociation in Tolkien’s work; also a reference to someone else’s research on the inspiration for the Houses of Healing in Minas Tirith. Also this led me to the research of Seamus Hamill-Keays on the Welsh inspiration for Buckland.
The whole thing is forensically researched and illustrated. Utterly absorbing if you are interested in Tolkien, and I think probably even if you are not you’ll find it a nice piece of biographical research on the life of a young woman born at the end of the nineteenth century.
Edited to add: The revised version of the article has also been withdrawn from the Journal of Tolkien Studies website. I hope it will reappear in some form someday.
[end]
I’m glad to say that the following year, 2021, it was properly published in the Cormarë series of Tolkieniana, with I think a bit more circumstantial detail and a delightful reconstruction of the episode where Edith danced for her husband in the woods at Dent’s Garth in 1917. It’s well worth getting if you want to see the most important feminine influences on Tolkien, whose story tends to get told in male terms.
It’s not perfect – the writing style is a tad clunky and in places repetitive, and it ends with an odd fixation on Tolkien’s knowledge of Sanskrit – of course he knew some, he was a philologist; but that doesn’t mean it was quite at the forefront of his mind all the time. But for Tolkienists, whether dilettantes like me or more serious folks, it’s a great read.
September 3, 2021
My opinion (in italian) can be find on my blog
https://www.mandos.it/2021/09/03/cosa...
https://www.mandos.it/2021/09/03/cosa...
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews