Who was C.S. Lewis’s close friend and fellow fantasy author of The Lord of the Rings?

C.S. Lewis’s close friend and fellow fantasy author of The Lord of the Rings was J.R.R. Tolkien.

Lewis and Tolkien met at Oxford and became members of the literary discussion group known as the Inklings. The group included writers who read works in progress aloud and discussed literature, language, mythology, and Christianity.

Tolkien’s best-known works include The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, while Lewis wrote the Chronicles of Narnia and the Space Trilogy. Their friendship influenced their intellectual and literary lives, although they also disagreed about aspects of each other’s writing.

Charles Williams and Owen Barfield were also associated with the Inklings, which is why they can be confused with Tolkien in questions about Lewis’s Oxford circle. Neither, however, wrote The Lord of the Rings.