At which university did J.R.R. Tolkien teach from 1920 to 1925?

J.R.R. Tolkien taught at the University of Leeds from 1920 to 1925.

At Leeds, he served first as a reader in English language and later as a professor. His work there focused on historical linguistics, Old English, Middle English, and related medieval languages. He also collaborated with E.V. Gordon on an influential edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, published in 1925.

Tolkien’s Leeds years came before his long Oxford career. In 1925 he moved to the University of Oxford, where he became Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon. He later held the Merton Professorship of English Language and Literature.

The university is sometimes omitted from short accounts of Tolkien’s career because Oxford is more strongly associated with him. Leeds was nevertheless an important professional and creative stage. During this period he developed teaching methods, linguistic expertise, and scholarly relationships that supported both his academic publications and the languages he invented for his fiction.