C.S. Lewis used the name The Inklings for the literary discussion group he founded with J.R.R. Tolkien at Oxford.
The Inklings were an informal group of writers and scholars associated with Oxford University. Lewis and Tolkien were central members, and the group also included figures such as Charles Williams, Owen Barfield, and Warren Lewis. Members read drafts of works aloud and discussed literature, mythology, theology, and language.
The group met in college rooms and at Oxford pubs, especially the Eagle and Child on St Giles’ Street, which members nicknamed the Bird and Baby. The meetings were not an official university society, and membership changed over time.
The Inklings matter because several major twentieth-century fantasy works developed in a community where authors could test ideas aloud. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and Lewis’s Narnia books were not written collaboratively, but the group provided criticism, encouragement, and an audience during their creation.