The Inklings was the Oxford literary group associated with C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.
The Inklings were an informal discussion group rather than a formally constituted club with membership rules. Writers and scholars met in Oxford, often at the Eagle and Child pub or in Lewis’s rooms at Magdalen College, to read and discuss works in progress. Lewis and Tolkien were central members, and the group also included Charles Williams, Owen Barfield, and Warren Lewis.
Members read aloud drafts of fantasy, poetry, theology, and other writing. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and Lewis’s works were discussed within this wider circle, although the group did not publish books collectively. The Inklings name became established in the early 1930s, and its meetings continued in varying forms until the group declined after the deaths of key members.