Meet the Inklings: The Literary Fellowship of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien

The Inklings were a group of Oxford professors and residents who met in the 1930s and 40s to discuss literature, philosophy, and culture. Bibliophiles know the group for its two most famous members, C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. Together, the Inklings changed the way we think about imagination and religion in the 20th century and beyond.

As I write this, it’s September and at last we’re getting the first delicious stirrings of fall. (I kept my windows open last night!) In the spirit of fall and all the back-to-school associations that brings, today’s post is an introduction to an academic group of literature enthusiasts who met in the most quintessential scholarly setting in the world: Oxford University. Not Yale, not Harvard, not Ca– well, you get the point, it’s clear I have my favourite!

The group called themselves “the Inklings.”

Active in the 1930s-40s, the Inklings met regularly for fellowship and to discuss their latest compositions. Although plenty of scholarly groups like this existed in Oxford and Cambridge and other university towns, the Inklings is remembered because among its members were two of the most famous authors of the twentieth century: J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis.

If you know even a little about the authors J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, you’ll know that they knew each other–perhaps even that they were friends for most of their adult lives. This friendship was crucial to their writings, and it’s incredible to think that without it, Lewis’s books would’ve been wholly different; Tolkien’s might not be published at all!

Tolkien wrote that “The unpayable debt that I owe to [C. S. Lewis] was not ‘influence’ as it is ordinarily understood, but sheer encouragement. He was for long my only audience. Only from him did I ever get the idea that my ‘stuff’ could be more than a private hobby. But for his interest and unceasing eagerness for more I should never have brought The L. of the R. to a conclusion.” 

By “The L. of the R.” he means The Lord of the Rings, of course. Can you imagine? Can you imagine not having these books, and their influence on popular culture and literally every fantasy novel published since? I’m not sure we can!

For many of us fans, the roots of our love for Tolkien’s world go deep. There was already a Tolkien Society begun in Tolkien’s lifetime, and the books exploded in popularity with college students and young adults during the counter-culture of the mid ’60s and ’70s. When those fans (among them my dad) grew up, they read Tolkien’s books to their kids (among them, me). We were the lucky ones who got to watch those stories of our childhood come to life with Peter Jackson’s film trilogy. And now, as hopefully a new generation of Tolkien fans emerges, we have The Rings of Power series.

Similarly, Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia series is part of the fabric of our childhood imaginations. They made us realise literature’s power to move us deeply–to feel heroism, suspense, longing, even virtues like prudence and temperance (would I have known to leave the wardrobe door open? Would I have gorged myself on Turkish delight? Struck the bell on Charn?).

The Tolkien-Lewis friendship predated the unofficial “official” Inklings group. Both professors at Oxford, they already met often for conversation, and adopted the Inklings moniker after a university group of the same name disbanded in 1933. Increasingly, they began inviting other colleagues to join them, and soon had regular gatherings.

If you could time travel back to Oxford in the 1930s on a Tuesday morning (almost any Tuesday will do), and make your way to St. Giles’ Street, it’s very likely you’d see Lewis, Tolkien, and several of their friends enter the Eagle and Child pub. You’d see them head straight to a back room, closed off from the rest of the pub, where they’d lunch, drink beer, and enjoy the type of hearty or mundane conversation that happens in the current of a busy, typical day.

The real “business,” so to speak, happened on Thursday nights after the day’s business was done, when the group could linger late into the night, deep in discussion or listening to each other’s scribblings–scribblings that would later become their lectures, published poems, novels, radio broadcasts, or plays.

For these Thursday meetings the Inklings met in C. S. Lewis’s rooms at Magdalen College. Lewis had a house outside of Oxford, but as a university professor he had private rooms within his college where he could work and conduct tutorials with students. There were couches and chairs, and a fireplace to keep things cozy on frosty nights, and many of the men would light pipes as they settled in.

Let’s take a look round the room and see who might’ve been there…

Charles Williams joined the Inklings when his employer, the Oxford University Press, relocated from London to Oxford to avoid bombing during World War II. Williams and C. S. Lewis had already exchanged letters of mutual admiration for each other’s work, and Lewis was only too happy to invite him into the group. Tolkien, on the other hand, while he enjoyed Williams’s company, remarked later that they “had nothing to say to one another at deeper (or higher) levels” and that their minds were “poles apart.”

Besides Lewis and Tolkien, Williams was the other major novelist of the Inklings group, publishing seven novels–the last of which, All Hallows Eve, was written and read aloud during his time with the Inklings. Williams’s novels are metaphysical thrillers that blend Christianity with occult themes and symbolism, and take place in modern England rather than an invented fantasy world. (The final book in Lewis’s Space Trilogy, That Hideous Strength, is certainly influenced by Williams’s style.)

In addition to novels, Williams wrote plays, biographies, literary criticism, theology, and poetry. He considered his most important work to be his complex Arthurian poetry cycles Taliessin Through Logres, and The Region of the Summer Stars. His book on Dante inspired Dorothy L. Sayers to leave off writing detective novels in order to translate The Divine Comedy. (Not sure if Peter Wimsey fans can thank him for that.)

You can read the novels of Charles Williams online for free.

Dr U.Q. Humphrey
Made poultices of comfrey
If you didn’t pay his bills
He gave you doses of squills

– J. R. R. Tolkien

A medical doctor who attended Lewis (and later Lewis’s wife, Joy Gresham), Lewis invited him to come to the Inklings meetings because of Havard’s interest in literature. Harvard became one of the most faithful attendees of the Inklings, and garnered the most nicknames including “Humphrey,” “Useless Quack” (or simply “U. Q.”, and “The Red Admiral.” He later became neighbors with the Tolkien family and attended the Catholic church with them. Lewis’s book Prince Caspian is dedicated to Havard’s daughter.

Mr. Neville Judson Coghill
Wrote a deal of dangerous doggerill.
Practical, progressive men
Called him Little Poison-pen

– J. R. R. Tolkien

• Colin Hardie (Lewis’s The Silver Chair is dedicated to his son Nicholas)
• Fr. Gervase Matthew
• Charles Leslie Wrenn
• C. E. Stevens
• James Dundas-Grant
• R. B. McCallum
• Percy Bates
• Walter Hooper
• John Walsh
• Martin Gilbert
• John David Arnett
• Jon Fromke
• E. R. Eddison (author of the fantasy novels The Worm Ouroboros and the Zimiamvia trilogy)
• Roy Campbell
• John Wain (although he attended some Inklings meetings, Wain didn’t identify himself as part of the group)

• The Pilgrim’s Regress – A modern retelling of Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.
• The Space Trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength)
• The Chronicles of Narnia series (7 books)
• The Screwtape Letters – A collection of “letters” written by a senior demon to his mentee.
• The Great Divorce – An allegorical novella about Heaven and Hell.
• Till We Have Faces – A novel retelling of the Cupid and Psyche myth. (Mentioned in my Book Oscars post.)
• The Dark Tower and Other Stories – A posthumously-published collection of Lewis’s short stories and unfinished fiction.

• The Problem of Pain – A theodicy that explores how suffering can exist in light of an all-powerful, good God.
• The Abolition of Man – Lewis’s influential treatise on education, morality, and Western culture.
• Miracles – A philosophical apologetic for the miraculous.
• Mere Christianity – An apologetic for the Christian faith, based on Lewis’s famous radio broadcasts during World War II.
• The Four Loves – An exploration of four types of human love and their significance for interpersonal relationships.
• Surprised By Joy – Memoir about Lewis’s early life and road to conversion.
• A Grief Observed – Lewis’s memoir and exploration of loss after the death of his wife.
• On Stories – A collection of several of Lewis’s essays on fiction and stories.
• An Experiment in Criticism – A “book about books,” perfect for bookworms who want to contemplate the literary experience.

• The Hobbit
• The Lord of the Rings (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King)
• The Silmarillion – A posthumously-published volume in the Middle Earth legendarium.
• The History of Middle Earth – 12-volume series compiled and edited by Christopher Tolkien from his father’s manuscripts and notes.
• Letters from Father Christmas – Posthumously-published collection of letters that Tolkien originally wrote for his children.
• Roverandom – A posthumously-published children’s fantasy novel that that Tolkien wrote and illustrated for his children.
• Smith of Wootton Major and Farmer Giles of Ham – Two fantasy short stories.
• Tree and Leaf – A collection that includes Tolkien’s famous “On Fairy-Stories” lecture, the short story “Leaf by Niggle,” the poem “Mythopoeia,” and the verse drama “The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth.”
• Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien – Collection of Tolkien’s personal letters, providing a fascinating insight into his life and creative process.
• The Monsters and the Critics – A hard-to-find but worthwhile collection of essays.

• The Inklings by Humphrey Carpenter – Carpenter was acquainted with Tolkien and Dyson.
• The Company They Keep by Diana Pavlac Glyer – An academically-aimed group biography of the Inklings.
• Bandersnatch by Diana Pavlac Glyer – Written for a more general audience than Company.
• The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings by Philip Zalesky and Carol Zalesky