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Abstract

"We are presented with two questions: “what did Tolkien really think about Narnia?” and “how did the idea that Tolkien hated Narnia become accepted as common knowledge?” In this essay, I will address both questions and conclude by suggesting why they matter for Inklings scholarship. At the outset, I will merely observe that since Tolkien and Lewis are two of the greatest fantasy writers of the twentieth century, it is worth knowing what one of them thought of the other’s work. …I have drawn my primary evidence from Tolkien’s published Letters (in the Revised and Expanded Edition), unpublished letters, and interviews.  have supplemented this material with first-hand recollections from those who knew Tolkien personally, putting the most weight on recollections that were published during Tolkien’s lifetime, in order to mitigate, as much as possible, the distorting effects of time on memory. Additional relevant material may turn up in the future, but at this point it appears reasonable to suggest that we have a fairly complete picture."

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