J.R.R. Tolkien’s academic specialty at Oxford was philology.
Philology is the historical study of languages through their texts, development, vocabulary, and relationships. Tolkien’s work drew on Old English, Middle English, Old Norse, Welsh, Finnish, and other linguistic traditions. His professional expertise strongly influenced the names, sounds, histories, and literary texture of Middle-earth.
At Oxford, Tolkien held major posts in English language and literature. He was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon from 1925 to 1945 and Merton Professor of English Language and Literature from 1945 to 1959.
Tolkien is sometimes described simply as a linguist, but philologist is the more precise traditional term for his academic field. His famous 1936 lecture “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics” helped change how the Old English poem was understood, emphasizing its artistic structure rather than treating it merely as historical evidence.