What was J.R.R. Tolkien’s first academic book about?

J.R.R. Tolkien’s first academic book was A Middle English Vocabulary, published in 1922.

Tolkien wrote A Middle English Vocabulary with Kenneth Sisam, a scholar and colleague associated with the University of Leeds. The book was designed as a companion to students reading Middle English texts and explained words and forms that could be difficult for modern readers. It appeared before Tolkien’s later major academic contributions and decades before his fiction made him internationally famous.

Tolkien’s scholarly career was rooted in philology, the historical study of languages and texts. His work on medieval English, Germanic languages, and literary traditions shaped his approach to invented languages and fictional histories. A common mix-up is to name Beowulf as the subject of his first book because Beowulf was central to his scholarship. Tolkien did publish the influential lecture “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics” in 1936, but that was an essay and lecture, not his first academic book.