At which university did J.R.R. Tolkien hold his first academic post as a professor?

J.R.R. Tolkien held his first academic post as a professor at the University of Leeds.

Tolkien became a reader in English language at Leeds in 1920, beginning his university teaching career after working on the Oxford English Dictionary. He was promoted to professor of English language in 1924 and stayed at Leeds until 1925.

During his Leeds years, Tolkien developed important scholarly and creative interests. He taught historical linguistics and medieval languages, while also continuing the imaginative language invention that would later support his mythology. His collaboration with E. V. Gordon produced the influential 1925 edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

Tolkien then returned to Oxford, where he became Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon. Leeds is sometimes overlooked because Oxford dominated the public image of Tolkien’s career, but Leeds was his first university professorship and an important stage in his development as a scholar.