C.S. Lewis used the nickname “Tollers” for his close friend J.R.R. Tolkien.
Lewis and Tolkien were members of the Inklings, an informal Oxford literary circle that discussed and read works in progress. The group met mainly at The Eagle and Child pub, known to members as the Bird and Baby, and also in Lewis’s rooms at Magdalen College.
Tolkien’s first name was John, and his full name was John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. Lewis sometimes used “Tollers,” a familiar form connected with Tolkien’s surname. Tolkien, in turn, was an important friend and fellow Christian writer during Lewis’s Oxford years.
The two authors influenced one another through conversation, criticism, and shared interest in myth, language, and Christian thought. Their friendship is sometimes reduced to a simple literary partnership, but their relationship also included disagreements and periods of distance.