C.S. Lewis was J.R.R. Tolkien’s close friend and fellow member of the Inklings.
The Inklings were an informal literary discussion group associated with Oxford, active mainly during the 1930s and 1940s. Tolkien and Lewis were among its best-known members. The group met in Oxford rooms and pubs, including the Eagle and Child, where writers read aloud from works in progress and discussed literature, theology, and mythology.
Tolkien helped bring Lewis into Christian belief, although their friendship was not based only on religion. Both writers valued myth, traditional storytelling, and imaginative literature. Lewis encouraged Tolkien’s writing and read parts of The Lord of the Rings while it was being developed.
Their relationship later became strained over personal and religious differences, but their intellectual friendship remains one of the most important literary associations connected with twentieth-century fantasy. The Inklings also included Charles Williams and Owen Barfield, among others.