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Abstract

Although J.R.R. Tolkien’s reputation in recent years has benefited immensely from Peter Jackson’s film productions of The Lord of the Rings, C.S. Lewis still far outreaches him in terms of public awareness and popularity, specifically within the Christian world. Most are surprised to learn that Tolkien played a major role in Lewis’ conversion, rather than vice versa, and that their famous friendship did not continue indefinitely, but began to fade with the publication of Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia. The differences in their philosophies of storytelling unsurprisingly reveals the philosophy of their relationship. In “On Fairy-Stories,” Tolkien demands that fantasy worlds remain independent and consistent, receiving no interference from the author’s own world. Lewis blatantly ignores that rule in Narnia by combining all kinds of mythology and sending human children back and forth between England and Aslan’s world. Rather than regard these differences as the final breach between the two authors, condemning their stories to suffer literary history with no comparisons or connections made, scholars must instead recognize and utilize them in an understanding of Lewis and Tolkien’s relationship as eager participant and proud creator, as reader and writer.

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