What title did J.R.R. Tolkien hold at Oxford from 1925 as a professor of Old English?

From 1925, J.R.R. Tolkien held the title Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford.

The position was based at Pembroke College, Oxford, where Tolkien taught Old English and related subjects. His academic work included the study of Germanic languages and medieval literature, fields that strongly informed his fiction and his approach to invented languages.

Tolkien held the professorship until 1945. He then moved to Merton College and became Merton Professor of English Language and Literature, a position he kept until his retirement in 1959. His career therefore included two major Oxford professorships.

The title is sometimes shortened casually to “Professor of Anglo-Saxon,” but its formal name commemorated two benefactors: Richard Rawlinson and the Bosworth family. Tolkien’s academic reputation was established independently of his later fame as the author of Middle-earth.