The Inklings was the name of Tolkien’s Oxford literary discussion group.
The group met mainly at Oxford’s Eagle and Child pub, which members nicknamed the Bird and Baby, and sometimes in college rooms. Its participants included Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Owen Barfield, although membership and attendance varied over time.
Members read works in progress aloud, discussed literature, and debated ideas about myth, imagination, and Christianity. Tolkien read early material connected with The Lord of the Rings to the group, while Lewis shared parts of his own fiction.
The Inklings was informal rather than a university society with a fixed constitution. The name became associated with the group during the 1930s and 1940s, and its meetings are remembered as an important part of the literary environment surrounding Tolkien’s Oxford career.