The surname of C.S. Lewis’s close friend and fellow Oxford writer J.R.R. Tolkien was Tolkien.
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was an English writer, philologist, and professor best known for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. He and Lewis belonged to the Inklings, an informal Oxford literary discussion group whose members shared and debated works in progress.
Lewis and Tolkien influenced each other’s intellectual and creative lives. Tolkien’s expertise in languages, mythology, and medieval literature helped shape the context in which Lewis’s own imaginative writing developed. Lewis, in turn, was an important early reader and supporter of Tolkien’s fiction.
Their friendship was not free from disagreement. Tolkien was a Roman Catholic, while Lewis became an Anglican, and their theological differences sometimes affected their relationship. Still, “Tolkien” is the specific surname requested; the other names are associated with different writers connected to English literature.