What was the name of J.R.R. Tolkien’s informal literary group at Oxford?

J.R.R. Tolkien’s informal literary group at Oxford was called the Inklings.

The Inklings met mainly during the 1930s and 1940s, often at C. S. Lewis’s rooms at Magdalen College or at the Eagle and Child pub. Members and regular participants read drafts aloud, discussed literature, and offered criticism. Tolkien and Lewis were among the group’s best-known figures.

The group was not a formal society with a fixed membership list. Its participants included writers and scholars such as Charles Williams, Owen Barfield, Hugo Dyson, and Warren Lewis. Meetings helped create an atmosphere in which members could test developing work with trusted friends.

The T.C.B.S. is a different group from Tolkien’s youth, formed with school friends before the First World War. “The Coalbiters” was also a Tolkien-associated reading group at Oxford, devoted to Icelandic literature. These names are related to Tolkien’s intellectual life but are not interchangeable with the Inklings.