C.S. Lewis’s closest friend and fellow Inkling who wrote The Hobbit was J.R.R. Tolkien. Tolkien was an Oxford scholar of language and literature, and his friendship with Lewis became one of the most important literary relationships in both men’s lives.
The two writers shared drafts, discussed mythology and Christianity, and encouraged each other’s creative work. Lewis helped motivate Tolkien to continue developing The Lord of the Rings, while Tolkien’s conversations contributed to Lewis’s renewed interest in Christianity. Their friendship was part of the wider Inklings circle, which included writers such as Charles Williams and Owen Barfield.
The Hobbit was published in 1937, before Tolkien’s later epic The Lord of the Rings. Although Lewis and Tolkien influenced one another, they wrote separate fictional worlds: Middle-earth belongs to Tolkien, while Narnia belongs to Lewis.