What was J.R.R. Tolkien’s first academic publication, a 1922 glossary of Middle English words?

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

Tolkien prepared the work while teaching and researching English language and medieval literature. It was designed as an aid to students reading the Ancrene Wisse, a Middle English prose text. The glossary reflects Tolkien’s early professional interest in the history of English vocabulary and in the precise study of medieval texts.

A Middle English Vocabulary predates his major scholarly essays and his best-known fiction by many years. Tolkien’s academic career was not separate from his imaginative work: his attention to word origins, sound changes, dialects, and historical relationships later informed his invented languages and the naming systems of Middle-earth.

The title is sometimes confused with Ancrene Wisse, which is the medieval text the glossary helps readers understand, rather than Tolkien’s first publication itself. Other major academic works, including Finn and Hengest and The Monsters and the Critics, appeared later.