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Originally Posted by Helen
However, since Tolkien had the name "Luthien" carved on his wife's headstone, and declared his own affinity with Beren in letters ("Beren" was later carved on his headstone as well), investigating his connections with that myth (Beren and Luthien) and its heir (Aragorn and Arwen) does not seem to me to be much of a stretch.
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I think this was a case of 'applicability'. In a letter to his children regarding placing the name Luthien on his wife's grave he said something along the lines of 'she was
my Luthien, & knew she was.' - very different from saying 'She
was Luthien.' And of course it was his children who placed the name 'Beren' on their joint gravestone, & we don't know if he would have approved. We certainly don't know if Edith considered Ronald
her 'Beren' (much though he might have seen himself in that relation to her) - not having his love for the mythology she may not have thought of him in that way at all. Maybe another example of him & his stories remaining in the dominant position even after death. I can't help wondering what her reaction would have been to being forever associated in the minds of Tolkien's readers with one of her husband's fictional characters.
However, back to the topic of this thread, I do wonder why Tolkien's orphans all seem to be single children. Its easy to forget that Tolkien had a brother, Hilary, who went through the same trauma at an even younger age. If the orphan/fosterling theme is autobiographical why don't we see at least a few orphaned pairs?