What was J.R.R. Tolkien’s final academic post at Oxford?

J.R.R. Tolkien’s final academic post at Oxford was Merton Professor of English Language and Literature.

Tolkien held the Merton Professorship from 1945 until his retirement in 1959. The position followed his earlier Oxford appointment as Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon, which he held from 1925 to 1945. His academic work focused on language and medieval literature, fields that also fed his creative writing.

The title is easy to confuse with Tolkien’s earlier chair because both were Oxford professorships. The Rawlinson and Bosworth position was associated with Anglo-Saxon studies, while the Merton Professorship covered English Language and Literature more broadly. Tolkien’s move to the Merton chair marked a later stage of his university career.

His Oxford teaching and scholarship continued alongside the development of The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien retired in 1959, but he remained an influential literary and linguistic figure until his death in 1973.