C.S. Lewis’s close friendship group with J.R.R. Tolkien and other writers was called the Inklings.
The Inklings were an informal literary discussion group associated with Oxford. Its members included C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, and Owen Barfield, although attendance varied over time. They met to read aloud and discuss works in progress, theology, mythology, poetry, and literary criticism.
The group was active mainly during the 1930s and 1940s. Meetings took place in Lewis’s rooms at Magdalen College and at the Eagle and Child pub in Oxford, which members nicknamed the Bird and Baby.
The Inklings were not a formal society with a fixed membership or published manifesto. Their importance came from sustained friendship and criticism. Tolkien read portions of The Lord of the Rings to the group, while Lewis shared developing ideas that contributed to works such as The Problem of Pain and the Narnia stories. The group’s name was a pun on “inkling,” meaning a slight idea or suspicion.