Which writer and Oxford colleague became one of C.S. Lewis’s closest friends?

J.R.R. Tolkien became one of C.S. Lewis’s closest friends and Oxford colleagues.

Lewis and Tolkien met at Oxford in the 1920s and developed a friendship grounded in their shared interest in language, mythology, medieval literature, and Christianity. Tolkien was a philologist and later became famous for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, while Lewis worked as a literary scholar and wrote both fiction and religious books.

They were central members of the Inklings, an informal Oxford discussion and writing group that met especially at The Eagle and Child pub. The group also included writers such as Charles Williams and Owen Barfield.

Their friendship was influential but not without tensions. Tolkien encouraged Lewis’s imaginative and literary thinking, while Lewis supported Tolkien’s work during its development. Their relationship is sometimes reduced to a simple literary partnership, but they were independent authors with different styles, audiences, and theological emphases.