What was J.R.R. Tolkien’s academic subject at Oxford University from 1925?

J.R.R. Tolkien was Oxford University’s Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon from 1925.

He took up the Oxford chair in 1925 after teaching at the University of Leeds. The post focused on the language and literature of Anglo-Saxon England, especially Old English texts and their historical context.

Tolkien’s academic work strongly influenced his fiction. He studied languages, word histories, myths, and heroic literature, including Beowulf, which he taught and interpreted throughout his career. His scholarly expertise helped him construct the linguistic and historical depth of Middle-earth.

In 1945 he became Merton Professor of English Language and Literature at Oxford, a different chair that he held until his retirement in 1959. Tolkien was therefore not primarily a professor of “fantasy literature”; his professional field was historical language and literature.