alternatehistory.com

J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis are the best known members of the Inklings: http://www.tolkien-online.com/inklings.html, which began meeting in 1933 or 1934. On Tuesday nights the Inklings met in the Eagle and Child public house in Oxford.

So what if the fire was on the night of Tuesday 8 March 1938. Tolkien, Lewis and other Inklings die in the fire. As regards Lewis there are no Narnia stories and his works of Christian apologetics. As regards Tolkien in a letter dated 4 March 1938 to Stanley Unwin, his publisher, he said that "The sequel to The Hobbit has now progressed as far as the end of the third chapter."

In this scenario how would Tolkien be remembered as a writer of fiction? In a letter to the editor of The Observer printed in that newspaper on 20 February 1938, Tolkien referred to an unpublished book - "the 'Silmarillion' a history of the Elves. Would it be published?

How would fantasy fiction develop without Lewis and much more importantly Tolkien?
Top