In J.R.R. Tolkien’s biography, at which university did he become a professor of Anglo-Saxon in 1925?

In J.R.R. Tolkien’s biography, he became a professor of Anglo-Saxon at the University of Oxford in 1925.

Tolkien had studied classics and English at Oxford and later held academic posts before receiving the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon. His Oxford career placed him at the center of Old English scholarship and helped shape his public identity as both a philologist and a writer.

He held the professorship until 1945, when he became Merton Professor of English Language and Literature at the same university. He remained at Oxford until his retirement in 1959.

Tolkien’s academic work strongly influenced his fiction. His expertise in languages, medieval literature, and myths contributed to invented languages and the historical depth of Middle-earth. He was not a professor at Cambridge, although Cambridge became associated with other major literary scholars.