Silmarillion Writers' Guild

"The end was swift. On the Thursday he joined in celebrations to mark Mrs Tolhurst’s birthday, but he did not feel well and would not eat much, though he drank a little champagne. During the night he was in pain, and next morning he was taken to a private hospital where an acute bleeding gastric ulcer was diagnosed. It so happened that Michael was on holiday in Switzerland and Christopher in France, and neither could have reached his bedside in time, but John and Priscilla were able to come down to Bournemouth to be with him. At first the reports on his condition were optimistic, but by Saturday a chest infection had developed, and early on the Sunday morning, 2 September 1973, he died, aged eighty-one."

J.R.R. Tolkien, a Biography,, by Humphrey Carpenter.

He and his wife are buried together in the Catholic section of Wolvercote Cemetery (Oxford). The Epitaph, single as the grave, reads:

Edith Mary Tolkien, Lúthien, 1889-1971

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, Beren, 1892-1973

(LJ hates me)