The English philosopher, narrator, poet and critic Owen Barfield (London, 1898–Forest Row, 1997) studied English language and literature at Oxford. He was a founding member of the Inklings group, formed among others by J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams and C. S. Lewis, for whom Barfield was "the best and wisest of my unofficial teachers". A Christian thinker, defender and scholar of Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophy, his conception of the ancient semantic unity of language had a key influence on Tolkien. Despite being a side figure in the European philosophical landscape of his time, his work continues to inspire not a few thinkers for his treatment of the evolution of consciousness or his proposal for a renewed and broad concept of nature.