What title did J.R.R. Tolkien hold as Oxford’s Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor?

J.R.R. Tolkien held the title Professor of Anglo-Saxon as Oxford’s Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor.

Tolkien occupied the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon from 1925 until 1945. The chair focused on the language and literature of the Anglo-Saxon period, especially Old English texts such as Beowulf.

His academic expertise strongly influenced his fiction. Tolkien treated invented languages as central to the histories of his peoples, and his knowledge of Old English, Old Norse, Welsh, Finnish, and other languages helped shape names, sound patterns, and literary traditions in Middle-earth.

In 1945, Tolkien moved to the Merton Professorship of English Language and Literature, which he held until 1959. The title is sometimes loosely summarized as an English professor, but the specific Rawlinson and Bosworth position was the Anglo-Saxon chair.