J.R.R. Tolkien initially studied Classics at Oxford before changing to English language and literature.
He entered Exeter College, Oxford, in 1911 and began with Classics. Tolkien soon changed his academic direction, moving toward the study of English language and literature, especially historical and Germanic languages. He graduated with first-class honors in English in 1915.
This training strongly shaped his later career and fiction. Tolkien became a specialist in philology, the historical study of languages and texts, and his knowledge of Old English, Middle English, Old Norse, Welsh, Finnish, and other languages influenced both his scholarship and his invented languages.
The change of subject is sometimes overlooked because Tolkien is widely described simply as an English professor. His professional identity combined literary study, historical linguistics, and medieval scholarship, rather than modern creative-writing training.