The city of dreaming spires and the final resting place of J.R.R. Tolkien and his wife.

I planned to write this post for Tolkien Reading Day on the 25th of March, the annual holiday for all Lord of the Rings fans, but I run out of time. I figured TRD was a good time to reminisce about my trip to Oxford back in October 2017, because J.R.R. Tolkien and his wife are buried together at the Wolvercote cemetery, but well, it is already April now.

Oxford is one of those classic historical English cities, full of elite schools with hallowed halls and scenic parks, with a stately, conservative vibe. It almost feels like time moves at its own pace in Oxford and if you want to get a nice impression of the old school vibe, I quite liked how R. F. Kuang paints the city in her book Babel. Babel is technically a dark fantasy book set in 19th century Oxford, which explores the colonial origins of languages, but I found the descriptions to be very true of my experience of Oxford’s historical city centre, which hasn’t changed all that much since then.

The city is most famous for the esteemed University of Oxford – from a visitor’s perspective, it can only be described as stern-academia-meets-Harry Potter, because all of the historical college buildings are gorgeous and the one in Christ Church college features the iconic dining hall from the Harry Potter movies. You can visit most of the University colleges on a guided tour within the admission hours, but as Harry Potter fans, my partner and I chose Christ Church college, which is also the most popular one. Even if you aren’t a Potterhead, it is absolutely worth a visit, because it is a very imposing building complex and you can feel yourself getting smarter just walking down the halls.

Impressions of oxford

There are several guided tours that will take you to other Harry Potter filming locations around the city. Besides the University, Oxford also has a very imposing castle and prison (yes, half of the buildings in Oxford can only be described as imposing and solidly grounded in history), the Ashmolean museum, which is the oldest public museum in Britain with a fancy rooftop bar, a lot of other museums and also Britain’s oldest Botanic gardens. Even though it can seem a bit severe at first glance, there is quite a bit of magic and wonder hiding in Oxford’s stuffy corners. Make sure you keep an eye out for small artsy shops, music venues and random activities on the river, and don’t forget to look up to count all of the many spires reaching towards the sky. Also, there is a very convenient fast train between Oxford and London, which takes about 50 minutes and is the one we took in 2017.

Since we were only in Oxford for a day, we focused on visiting Christ Church college and J.R.R. Tolkien’s grave, but I plan to be back for a better look at the rest some day. The path to J.R.R. Tolkien’s grave is well-marked and easy to find once you get to the Wolvercote cemetery, which is easily accessible by bus from the city centre. Fun fact: Winston Churchill, Agatha Christie and George Orwell are also buried in Oxford, just not at the Wolvercote cemetery.

Tolkien and his beloved wife Edith are buried together and their grave names them as Beren and Luthien, the star-crossed lovers from Tolkien’s epic saga the Silmarillion, which is about as romantic as you can get. As the story goes, Beren, a mortal man, falls in love with Luthien, the most beautiful of all immortal elf maidens. Before he can wed her, he is given an impossible challenge by her father, which the two lovers somehow manage to complete together at great peril. Although they then know peace together for a time, danger strikes again and Beren is killed, leading Luthien to forsake her immortality for a chance at a second, mortal life with him. Her wish is granted and when the end of their mortal lives finally comes in truth, the two depart the world together for the halls of the dead, just as John and Edith Tolkien did. When we were leaving the cemetery in Oxford back then, a beautiful rainbow spanned across the sky, as if to pay its respects to the Tolkiens and their love too.

J.R.R. Tolkien’s grave at Wolvercote cemetery

“For it is above all gold and silver, and beyond all jewels. Neither rock, nor steel, nor the fires of Morgoth, nor all the powers of the Elf-kingdoms, shall keep from me the treasure that I desire. For Luthien your daughter is the fairest of all the Children of the World.”

J. R. R. Tolkien – The Silmarillion: Beren about Luthien to her father