The Inklings (Tolkien et al)

THE OXFORD INKLINGS
J. R. R. TOLKIEN, C. S. LEWIS, CHARLES WILLIAMS, OWEN BARFIELD
From the 1930s to the early 1950s, a group of Oxford friends, several of them University dons, gathered regularly in the rooms of the Magdalen College tutor of English. Referring to themselves as the "Inklings", they came together, not only for the warmth and collegiality of late night fireside chats, but to read aloud to each other the books they were writing, books whose distinctive blend of Christian faith, Platonic philosophy, and Romantic imagination has gained for them a large and ever-growing circle of devoted readers.

The tutor of English, better known as the twentieth century's most celebrated Christian apologist, was C. S. Lewis, author of The Chronicles of Narnia, and among the friends to share his hearth were Owen Barfield, whose theory of symbolic consciousness informed the work of all the Inklings; J. R. R. Tolkien, author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and creator of "Middle earth"; and Charles Williams, whose novels have been called supernatural thrillers and whose ideas are a remarkable combination of mysticism, alchemy, Neoplatonic cosmology, and theology.

The Baby and the Bird
by Diana L Paxson

Old Rome had many taverns

Devoted to the vine,

Where Ovid pledged each new love

In red Falernian wine;

Catullus, shamed by Lesbia,

Poured out his grief in verse;

Apuleus noted follies,

And pondered which was worse.

Refrain:But the place that draws me ever

When my fancy's running wild,

Is a little pub in Oxford Called

The Eagle and the Child,

The Eagle and the Child, oh,

Or else, as I have heard

Its regulars all called it--

The Baby and the Bird!

The company was lively In Soutwark's Tabard Inn,

When Chaucer and the Pilgrims Were telling tales within,

And on the Canterbury road

They took that April day,

And at the other hostels

Where they stayed upon their way.

(REFRAIN)When Villon, gutter-poet,

Reeled through the Paris night,

Drunk on verse and hypocras

And looking for a fight,

The Pomme de Pin, the Cheval Blanc

All welcomed him, and more,

With wine at every table

And doxies at each door.

(REFRAIN)Of all the City's taverns,

When Bess was England's Queen,

The Mermaid, undisputed, ruled

The literary scene.

Each Global play was played again

And christened in brown ale,

While Shakespeare, or Ben Jonson,

Stood up to tell the tale.

(REFRAIN)Augustan wits made merry

At London's Cheshire Cheese--

The topic was no matter,

So that the manner please--

Be it Love or Politicks,

'Twas scandalous, I've heard,

And Johnson had his Boswell

To write down every word.

(REFRAIN) Asking, They sing of famous taverns,

But considering them all,

The one where I had rather Been

a fly upon the wall,

Would be the Inn where Tolkien,Lewis, Williams too,

Met with the other Inklings Asking,

"Who has something new?"

(copyright, Diana L. Paxson, used by permission; transcribed by David Bratman)

Diana L. Paxson, long-time active in The Mythopoeic Society, and in The Society for Creative Anachronism, is the author of many novels, including The White Raven, The "Fionn MacCumhal trilogy, and a trilogy on the Siegfried legend, the most recent volume of which, The Lord of Horses, is just out. She was a Mythcon XXI guest of honor, chaired Mythcon XII, has played her harp and sang and mounted several stage productions at past Mythcons. --David Lenander http://www.tc.umn.edu/~d-lena/BirdnBab.html