The Inklings was the real-world literary group that included J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.
The Inklings was an informal discussion group associated with the University of Oxford. Its members met mainly in the 1930s and 1940s, often at The Eagle and Child pub or in Lewis’s rooms at Magdalen College. They read works in progress aloud, exchanged criticism, and discussed literature, religion, and mythology.
Tolkien and C.S. Lewis were among the group’s best-known members, but the Inklings was not a formal society with a fixed membership list or constitution. Charles Williams and Owen Barfield were also important participants. The group’s name was a playful reference to literary ideas or “inklings.”
The Inklings did not write a shared series or create a single literary style. Its importance came from conversation and mutual feedback, which gave Tolkien and others an audience while their major works were developing.