What was J.R.R. Tolkien’s academic subject at Oxford when he earned his first-class degree in 1915?

J.R.R. Tolkien earned a first-class degree in English Language and Literature at Oxford in 1915. He studied at Exeter College, where his academic interests included Old English, Middle English, Germanic languages, and medieval texts.

Tolkien had initially entered Oxford to study Classics, but he changed direction toward English after discovering that philology and early Germanic languages suited his interests better. This training became central to both his scholarship and his fiction. He often developed stories from the sounds, structures, and histories of invented languages.

The degree should not be confused with a degree specifically in philology. Tolkien’s formal subject was English Language and Literature, while philology describes the historical study of languages and texts that shaped much of his work. He later became a major academic authority on Old and Middle English, particularly through his teaching and research at Oxford.