When C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien first met on May 11, 1926 at Oxford University, where Tolkien was a professor of English language and Lewis a professor of English literature, they initially didn’t hit it off. Tolkien didn’t think English literature held much academic validity. Lewis’ Protestant upbringing had taught him never to trust a “Papist”; Tolkien was Catholic.
But both men shared a passion for Nordic legends, and when Tolkien founded a club at Oxford to discuss the Norse language, Lewis readily joined up.
Before long, their conversations turned from Nordic legends to Christianity, says Alan Jacobs, author of The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C.S. Lewis.
“Lewis began his academic career as a philosopher and as an atheist. He was quite proud of his abilities to demolish the claims of any theism,” says Jacobs, a professor of English and director of the Faith and Learning Program at Wheaton College. “Lewis never thought you could argue anyone into conversion. It’s a changing of both the heart and the will, not a changing of the mind.”
In the end, Tolkien was instrumental in Lewis’ conversion to Christianity.
“Tolkien talked to him about stories that Lewis loved and got him to think about what it was about those stories that moved him,” Jacobs says. “Many of these stories were reinterpretations of the one great story: the life, crucifixion and rebirth of Jesus Christ.”
In addition to sharing his faith, Tolkien also shared his work. Lewis is believed to be one of the first people Tolkien allowed to read The Hobbit.
“Tolkien didn’t think that anybody else in the world would care about the story he wrote,” Jacobs says, but Lewis was enthusiastic, badgering Tolkien to publish the manuscript until he finally relented. The book was published in 1938.
But Tolkien didn’t return the admiration in the case of Lewis’ Narnia tales.
“He thought they were too cute, for one thing,” Jacobs says. “He also thought it was wrong of Lewis to bring in so many different mythologies, from fauns to Father Christmas. There didn’t seem to be any consistency.”
[Read the rest at the Chicago Sun-Times]
