C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien taught at Oxford University, in the city of Oxford in south-central England.
The Tourist Information Centre in Oxford has lots of information. They sell a nice booklet for just £2 or so describing a very detailed walk around Oxford to see the C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien sights.
Lewis taught as a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, from 1925 to 1954, and then became the Professor of Medieval and Renaissance English at the University of Cambridge.
Tolkien was the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College, Oxford, from 1925 to 1945. He was then the Merton Professor of English Language and Literature at Merton College, Oxford, from 1945 until his retirement in 1959.
Lewis and Tolkien were members of an informal literary discussion group known as the Inklings. They were literary enthusiasts who praised the value of narrative in fiction and encouraged the writing of fantasy.
Warren Lewis, C.S.'s older brother, wrote, "Properly speaking, the Inklings was neither a club nor a literary society, though it partook of the nature of both. There were no rules, officers, agendas, or formal elections."
They met regularly on Tuesdays at the Eagle and Child pub, seen above and here. It's on St Giles Street, just across the street and north of St John's College.
The front section of the pub shows its age. The earliest date usually given for its construction is 1650, although there are claims that it served as the lodgings of the Chancellor of the Exchequer when Oxford was the Royalist capital during the English Civil War (1642-1649).
These windows look out on St Giles.
The Rabbit Room was the back corner room of the pub until it was expanded.
This is where the Inklings met, near the fireplace, just across from the bar.
Colin Dexter, who created Inspector Morse, has also been a more recent literary regular here.
The Eurobar sits on George Street in front of the coach station. For Americans, that's English for "bus station".
Back in the day, when it had another name and didn't have the flashing gambling "fruits machine" standard in British pubs, this was Tolkien's inspiration for The Prancing Pony. That's the inn where Frodo get raging drunk and starts singing, this leads to an attack by the Black Riders, and then Aragorn has to save them.
And, I mean, really. We know that the third book is titled Return of the King. Aragorn might as well be wearing a T-shirt saying:
|
I AM THE ARCHETYPAL EXILED KING IN HIDING. |
Who didn't see his eventual role coming way in advance, pretty much from his first appearance?
As for the Prancing Pony's appearance:
"Even from the outside the inn looked a pleasant house to familiar eyes. It had a front on the Road, and two wings running back on land partly cut out of the lower slopes of the hill, so that at the rear the second-floor windows were level with the ground. There was a wide arch leading to a courtyard between the two wings, and on the left under the arch there was a large doorway reaches by a few broad steps. ... Above the arch there was a lamp, and beneath it swung a large signboard: a fat white pony reared up on its hind legs. Over the door was painted in white letters: THE PRANCING PONY by BARLIMAN BUTTERBUR."
— The Fellowship of the Ring, "At the Sign of the Prancing Pony"
This is not an especially nice pub, it seems a little rough and it's right in the coach station parking lot. Although I guess that's kind of the "Prancing Pony" vibe, so that's probably the most appropriate.
These are some views of Merton College, where Tolkien taught.
It was one of the original three colleges of Oxford founded in 1264.
Its Old Library is the oldest medieval library still in use. It has a number of 15th century astronomical instruments, including an astrolabe that may have been used by Chaucer.
It's south of High Street, near prominent Christ Church College.
This is Magdalen College, where C.S. Lewis taught.
It's pronounced mawd-lin, as the English word "maudlin" came from the earlier pronunciation of what we now spell "Magdalene" and pronounce mag-dah-leen.
The college was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete, the bishop of Winchester.
A residential area of Magdalen College.
The statues around this cloister within Magdalene College gave C.S. Lewis the idea for the statue-like frozen animals in Narnia.
The chapel within Magdalen College.
The chapel dates from the late 15th century.
The choir of the chapel.
A study hall within Magdalene College.
A study hall within Magdalene College.
The grand dining hall within Magdalene College.
C.S. Lewis lived in this relatively modern residential hall.
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
