What was J.R.R. Tolkien’s academic field at Oxford when he became a professor in 1945?

J.R.R. Tolkien became Oxford’s Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon in 1945, within the field of English language and literature.

His academic work focused especially on historical languages, Old English, Middle English, and medieval texts. Before taking the Oxford chair, he had taught at the University of Leeds and served as a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford from 1925.

Tolkien’s scholarship strongly shaped his fiction. His knowledge of languages and medieval literature influenced invented tongues such as Quenya and Sindarin, as well as the legends, names, and poetic styles of Middle-earth. His famous 1936 lecture “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics” helped redirect scholarly attention toward the poem as a work of literature.

Although Tolkien is often described simply as a novelist, his professional specialization was philology and the study of English language and literature. He held the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship until 1959.