"Literary Links" - The Inklings in Oxford

 "Literary Links" is a series of posts celebrating Britain's wonderful links with great authors, dramatists and poets.

Many Oxford visitors will make a pilgrimage to the Eagle and Child pub, but there are a couple of other sites they should really include as well.  

The Eagle and Child is a seventeenth century pub most famously known as the meeting place of the Inklings – a small literary group which included C.S. Lewis and J.R. Tolkien.  Here they would gather every Tuesday morning for 23 years to share a chapter, a poem, a line, a plot with their friends.  Here they would discuss, drink, debate and discover.  A beer in one hand and a smoke in the other made this as comfortable as any hobbit hole.   Here the deeds of Sam and Frodo or Prince Caspian and Aslam gradually evolved and came to life.  C.S. Lewis once said to Tolkien “If they won’t write the kinds of books we want to read, we shall have to write them ourselves.”  

There are couple of other sites worthy of adding to any inklings fan's itinerary.

To the side of the University Church of St Mary the Virgin, down St. Mary’s Passage is a little bit of Narnia.  There is a door facing St Mary’s church which has a local legend attached to it - the following story may be no more than an urban legend, but even if it is not true it should be!

The story goes that C.S. Lewis came out of the western doors of the church, bumped his head and as he steadied himself came face to face with a carved door in the middle of which is a Green Man, symbolic of rebirth, and looking very lion like.

The 'Narnia' door on the left, and St Mary's Church on the right.
The Radcliffe Camera is in the background.

 Above it he saw two carved fawns in the canopy and, as he turned towards Radcliffe Camera, saw a lamppost.  So, it is claimed, was he introduced to Aslan the Lion, Mr Tumnus the Faun and the lamppost which all featured in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Two fawns guarding the Aslan door, and the lampost in the distance.

Our next stop is Holywell cemetery surrounding St Cross Church to visit the tombs of Charles Williams and Hugo Dyson. 

The tomb of Charles Williams (1886 - 1945)

William's name does not usually register with most visitors.  However, he was another member of the inklings group that met to share their works and thoughts.  The group could average as many as ten regulars plus a handful of occasional visitors, but Williams influence was such that he is sometimes referred to as "The Third Inkling".  He had been hired by the Oxford University Press as a proofreading assistant and eventually became an editor. He was mainly a novelist and his writings influenced Dorothy Sayers, T.S. Eliot and W.H. Auden.  His tombstone remembers him as 'Poet'.  One of his greatest fans and friends was C.S. Lewis.  Some reviewers believe that Aslan the lion in the Chronicles of Narnia, was based on the lion who appeared in Williams’ book The Place of the Lion.

Also buried in this cemetery is a lesser known inkling called Hugo Dyson.  He was a much loved lecturer at the University and he thoroughly enjoyed the weekly meetings at the Eagle and Child.  He did acquire a distaste for Tolkien's orcs and elves, and his obvious dislike actually stopped Tolkien from sharing much of his Lord of the Rings with the group.  Oh to be able to switch places with Dyson and to hear and encourage the tales of Middle Earth from the mouth of their creator.  Dyson along with Tolkien, was a key influence in converting C.S. Lewis to Christianity.

The tomb of Hugo Dyson 1896-1975

All these inkling sites are included in our self guided tours of Oxford on www.obelisktours.com

• The Narnia door is included in Oxford's Noble and Great Ones Tour Two
• Holywell Cemetery is in Oxford's Noble and Great Ones Tour Two.
• The Eagle and Child is included in Oxford's Noble and Great Ones Tour Three.