Elwin Ransom
Elwin Ransom may be based on C. S. Lewis' friend J. R. R. Tolkien ("Elwin" means "Elf friend" in Anglo-Saxon), though he seems to have autobiographical elements. In "That Hideous Strength" Ransom, with his royal charisma and matter-of-fact breezy acceptance of the supernatural, appears less like Tolkien than like Charles Williams (or some of the heroes in Williams' books).
Pembroke College, Oxford
J. R. R. Tolkien was a Fellow of Pembroke from 1925 to 1945, and wrote "The Hobbit" and the first two volumes of "The Lord of the Rings" during his time there. Since 2013 the college has held an annual lecture on fantasy literature in his honour. Robin G. Collingwood, historian, philosopher, and author of "The Idea of History", was a fellow of the college between the Great War and the Second World War.