Fellowship & Fairydust

Recently, Amanda Pizzolatto contributed a helpful essay to Fellowship & Fairydust on “Worlds to Visit after Middle-Earth and Narnia.” Among other insights, she noted the effect that Tolkien and Lewis had on fantasy literature after the 1960s. Particularly in the wake of Tolkien’s success, numerous imitators filled the fantasy market (Terry Brooks’ The Sword of Shannara is an early example).

Much has also been said about how this fantasy boom created a foundation for scholars taking fantasy literature seriously. Many readers were exposed to fantasy through Tolkien, then went on to read other fantasy classics (helped by Lin Carter’s Ballantine Adult Fantasy series). Organizations devoted to the Inklings’ work appeared through the 1960s and 1970s, and those that survived (such as the Mythopoeic Society founded in 1971) became serious academic organizations promoting the study of fantasy literature.

What sometimes goes under the radar is that Lewis and Tolkien weren’t the only Inklings who wrote speculative fiction (fantasy, science fiction, horror, and associated subgenres). Several other members wrote stories still worth reading. There are also various speculative writers who came after the Inklings, sharing the same faith but exploring it in unique ways in their work. Here’s a look at 10 of these writers – contemporaries of Tolkien and Lewis, or successors in various ways.

1. Charles Williams. In 1936, CS Lewis sent Charles Williams a fan letter for his supernatural thriller In the Place of the Lion. Williams, an editor for Oxford University Press, responded that he was overseeing the publication of Lewis’ study The Allegory of Love. Lewis quickly introduced Tolkien to Williams’ novels, and Williams joined the Inklings from 1939 to his 1945 death. Williams wrote many things, from plays to Dante studies to poetry (some argue he was the 20th-century’s most important Arthurian poet). The best place to start is Williams’ novels, which begin like thrillers but become something more mystical. Most of them involve people seeking a magical object, such as the holy grail (War in Heaven), the stone of Solomon (Many Dimensions), or the original tarot deck (The Greater Trumps). In each case, something bizarre happens as people unpeel the spiritual dimensions of their situation.
2. Owen Barfield. One of Lewis’ oldest friends, Narnia fans owe a particular debt to him: Lewis dedicated The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe to Barfield’s daughter, Lucy. Similarly, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is dedicated to Barfield’s son Geoffrey. While Barfield’s book Poetic Diction influenced Tolkien and Lewis, his nonfiction subjects (human perception and consciousness, Rudolf Steiner’s Anthroposophy movement) didn’t gain many readers until the 1960s. Readers not ready to explore Barfield’s eclectic nonfiction will enjoy his fiction. His science fiction novella Night Operation delves into clever questions about the power of learning. His fantasy stories, The Rose on the Ash-Heap and The Silver Trumpet, explore surprising ideas behind seemingly simple fairytale plots.  
3. Roger Lancelyn Green. Some scholars would say Green wasn’t a proper Inkling (he didn’t regularly attend the Thursday story-sharing sessions at Lewis’ Magdalen College rooms or the Tuesday social meetings at the Eagle and Child). However, Green was close to the group and co-wrote a Lewis biography with Walter Hooper. Green was a prolific writer, from Lewis Carroll biographies to original fiction like The Land of the Lord High Tiger, and his retellings of classic fantasy stories are still widely read today. His King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table and The Adventures of Robin Hood are both classics, as is his book Once Long Ago: Folk & Fairy Tales of the World.
4. Victor Rousseau. Not well-known today, Rousseau was a professional writer who published everything from westerns to crime stories. His time travel novel The Master of the Cylinder provides an early critique of secular humanist science fiction. The recent documentary The Science Fiction Makers shows Rousseau was an underrated contemporary of the Inklings, as well as a seminal Christian science fiction writer. His other fantasy/science fiction novels include The Eye of Balomok, The Sea Demons, and Draught of Eternity.
5. Walter Wangerin, Jr. A Lutheran minister by training, Wangerin exploded onto the literary scene in 1978 when he won the US National Book Award for his fantasy novel The Book of the Dun Cow. This story, based on Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, started a trilogy (The Book of Sorrows, Peace at the Last). Wangerin wrote prolifically—poems, memoirs, devotional collections, and even a retelling of the Bible titled The Book of God. Readers seeking an easy entry into his work may want to start with his children’s books Elisabeth and the Water Troll or Probity Jones And The Fear Not Angel.
6. Robert Siegel. While Siegel never achieved the kind of recognition that Wangerin or Madeleine L’Engle received, his fantasy tales were treasured by fans. His Whalesong trilogy (Whalesong, The White Whale, The Ice at the End of the World) combines the adventures of a humpback whale named Hruna with ponderings about ecology. Siegel also wrote two short fantasy series for children (Alpha Centauri, The Kingdom of Wyrm) and the standalone fantasy novel The Stargoose.
7. Calvin Miller. A pastor and divinity school professor, Miller wrote over 40 books on preaching, spiritual practices, and other religious subjects. For many people though, his best-known work is The Singer trilogy, three stories in verse about a man who struggles to sing a song carried within him. The story is charming by itself, but it slowly becomes clear that Miller is telling an allegory about a certain New Testament figure.
8. Jonathon Rogers. Rogers has written The World According to Narnia and a Saint Patrick biography for Thomas Nelson’s Christian Encounter series. For many readers, he’s best known for his Wilderking trilogy, four books that retell the story of King Daniel in a fantasy context that feels a little like Narnia, a little like The Wind in the Willows, and a little like Tom Sawyer.
9. Gordon Greenhill. A theologian-turned storyteller, Gordon Greenhill has an impressive catalog of audiobooks where he narrates classic texts from G.K. Chesterton’s Orthodoxy to C.S. Lewis’ Spirits in Bondage. He’s also written his own fantasy series, The Relics of Errus, which impishly pays homage to the Chronicles of Narnia while creating a unique world. Like the Pevensies, the Hoover sisters find themselves thrown into a new world while exploring their new house. Unlike the Pevensies, their journeys will include a flying machine called the Sky Cricket and debates about whether a mysterious goddess has a magic well that many residents pass off as a fable.
10. Matthew Dickerson. Another writer who’s done a little bit of everything—from a study on environmentalism in Middle-earth (Ents, Elves, and Eriador) to a biography of musician Mark Heard (Hammers and Nails). Dickerson’s novels include two historical fiction novels (The Finnsburg Encounter and The Rood and the Torc) and a three-volume fantasy novel titled The Daegmon War. On the island of Glondisle, half-forgotten tales describe a time when “the Gifted” fought the Daegman Lords. Both groups seem long gone (if they ever existed). But now a Daegman Lord has arisen… and the Gifts can’t be far behind.

Bonus Reading: Books by Family Members of the Inklings

Sometimes it’s fun to look not just at books written by the Inklings and their successors but also at those indirectly associated with them. For example, C.S. Lewis’ father, Albert, wrote short stories occasionally. You can read one of the stories in Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal (Vol. 14, 2020). While Christopher Tolkien is best known for editing his father’s work, you can also read his English translation of The Saga of King Heidrek the Wise (republished by Thomas Nelson in 2010). If you enjoy spy or crime fiction, you may enjoy the Inspector Trave series by Christopher’s son Simon.