C.S. Lewis’s longtime literary friend was J.R.R. Tolkien.
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was an English writer, philologist, and Oxford academic best known for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Lewis met Tolkien at Oxford, and their friendship grew through shared interests in language, mythology, medieval literature, and Christianity.
Both men participated in the Inklings, where they read drafts and discussed one another’s work. Lewis encouraged Tolkien during the development of The Lord of the Rings, while Tolkien played an important role in Lewis’s return to Christian belief, although Lewis’s conversion involved several influences and developed over time.
The friendship later became more complicated, especially as their religious and personal relationships changed. Still, Tolkien remained one of the most important literary companions in Lewis’s life. Owen Barfield and Charles Williams were other major figures in Lewis’s Oxford circle, but neither was Tolkien.