The Inklings was the Oxford literary group that included C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien and met at the Eagle and Child pub.
The group was an informal association rather than a society with a formal membership list or constitution. Its members met to read aloud and discuss works in progress, including fantasy, poetry, theology, and literary criticism. Lewis and Tolkien were among its best-known participants.
The Eagle and Child, a pub on Oxford’s St Giles’ street, became associated with the group’s lunchtime meetings. Members also met in Lewis’s rooms at Magdalen College. Their discussions gave writers an audience willing to question structure, language, theology, and storytelling.
The Inklings is often remembered mainly as a Lewis-Tolkien partnership, but other members included Charles Williams, Owen Barfield, Warren Lewis, and Hugo Dyson. The group’s influence came from sustained conversation rather than from publishing a shared manifesto.