Which writer was C.S. Lewis’s close friend and fellow Inkling?

J.R.R. Tolkien was C.S. Lewis’s close friend and fellow Inkling.

Lewis and Tolkien met at Oxford and developed a friendship based on shared interests in mythology, language, literature, and Christianity. Tolkien was a professor of Anglo-Saxon and later English at Oxford, while Lewis taught English literature. Their conversations helped both writers test ideas and hear unfinished work aloud.

They belonged to the Inklings, an informal Oxford literary circle that also included Charles Williams and Owen Barfield. The group was not a formal society with membership rules; it was a network of writers and scholars who met to read and discuss manuscripts, often at The Eagle and Child pub.

Lewis encouraged Tolkien’s writing, including early work connected with The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien, in turn, influenced Lewis’s thinking about myth and helped support his return to Christian belief. Their friendship later cooled, but their shared Oxford literary history remains one of the best-known collaborations in modern fantasy.