At which university did J.R.R. Tolkien hold the Merton Professorship of English Language and Literature?

J.R.R. Tolkien held the Merton Professorship of English Language and Literature at the University of Oxford.

He became Merton Professor in 1945 and remained at Oxford until his retirement in 1959. Before that appointment, he had taught at the University of Leeds and held an earlier professorship at Oxford, at Rawlinson and Bosworth College.

Tolkien’s academic work focused on language and medieval literature, especially Old and Middle English. His expertise in philology—the historical study of languages—fed directly into his fiction. He often created languages first or developed them alongside the cultures and histories of his invented peoples.

Oxford is sometimes confused with Cambridge because Tolkien’s friend C.S. Lewis taught at Cambridge later in life. Tolkien’s main academic career, however, was closely connected with Oxford and its colleges.