The children’s author who became C.S. Lewis’s close friend at Oxford was J.R.R. Tolkien. Tolkien was a philologist and professor of Anglo-Saxon, best known for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
Lewis and Tolkien belonged to the Inklings, an informal Oxford literary group that met mainly at The Eagle and Child pub and in Lewis’s rooms at Magdalen College. Members read works in progress aloud and discussed mythology, language, theology, and storytelling.
Their friendship influenced both writers. Tolkien encouraged Lewis during the development of his Christian apologetic writing, while Lewis supported Tolkien’s imaginative fiction. Tolkien’s work helped prompt Lewis’s interest in myth and northern literature, although the two men did not agree on every literary or theological question.
A common mix-up is identifying Tolkien as an author of children’s books only. The Hobbit was written for younger readers, but Tolkien’s wider legendarium also includes the much more extensive history developed in The Lord of the Rings and related writings.