C.S. Lewis used the name The Inklings for the literary group he attended with Tolkien.
The Inklings were an informal discussion group associated with the University of Oxford. They were not a formal society with a membership register or constitution. Members and guests read unfinished work aloud, discussed literature, and argued about ideas. C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien were among the best-known participants, alongside writers such as Charles Williams and Owen Barfield.
The group met in Lewis’s rooms at Magdalen College and at the Eagle and Child pub, an Oxford establishment often called the Bird and Baby. Meetings were particularly active from the 1930s into the 1940s. The members’ conversations provided encouragement and criticism while several major works of twentieth-century fantasy and Christian literature were taking shape.
The name is a pun on “ink” and “inkling,” meaning a hint or slight knowledge. The Inklings did not write a shared series or publish a collective manifesto. Their importance lies in the exchange of drafts, criticism, friendship, and intellectual influence.