The literary discussion group associated with C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien was called the Inklings.
The Inklings were an informal Oxford literary circle active mainly from the 1930s through the early 1950s. Members met to read aloud and discuss works in progress, poetry, theology, and imaginative literature. Lewis and Tolkien were central figures, but the group also included writers such as Charles Williams and Owen Barfield.
The group is strongly associated with The Eagle and Child pub in Oxford, where members often met. However, the Inklings were not a formal club with a published membership list or a fixed constitution. Their conversations and manuscript readings provided encouragement and criticism during the development of major works.
Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and Lewis’s fiction are frequently discussed together because of this friendship. They remained distinct authors, though, with different mythologies, styles, and religious approaches.