J.R.R. Tolkien became a professor of English language at the University of Leeds in 1924.
Tolkien joined Leeds in 1920 as a reader in English language and was promoted to professor four years later. His work there focused on the history and structure of languages, especially the older Germanic languages that formed an important part of his scholarly expertise.
His Leeds period was significant for both scholarship and fiction. He collaborated with E. V. Gordon on the influential edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, published in 1925. He also continued developing ideas about invented languages and stories that later connected to Middle-earth.
Tolkien left Leeds in 1925 to take the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford. Thus, “English language” describes his Leeds chair, while “Anglo-Saxon” identifies his first Oxford professorship.