In 1925, which Oxford professorship did J.R.R. Tolkien take up?

In 1925, J.R.R. Tolkien became the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford.

Tolkien took the Oxford chair in 1925, beginning a distinguished academic career focused on Old English language and literature. The title is often shortened to the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship, but its full name identifies Anglo-Saxon studies as the field.

His scholarship and teaching strongly influenced his creative work. Tolkien was an expert in texts such as Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and his knowledge of Germanic languages helped shape the vocabulary, poetry, and heroic traditions of Middle-earth. His 1936 lecture “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics” became especially influential in modern Beowulf criticism.

Tolkien later moved to the Merton Professorship of English Language and Literature in 1945. That later post is a common source of confusion when biographers summarize his Oxford career. Tolkien held the Rawlinson and Bosworth chair for two decades before changing positions.