What was J.R.R. Tolkien’s first academic teaching post, held from 1920 to 1925?

J.R.R. Tolkien’s first academic teaching post was at the University of Leeds, where he worked from 1920 to 1925.

Tolkien joined Leeds as a reader in English language in 1920 and became a professor there in 1924. During this period, he taught subjects connected with medieval and historical English and continued developing his expertise in languages and philology.

His Leeds years were also important creatively. He worked with E. V. Gordon on an edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, published in 1925. Tolkien also helped form a student group focused on the study and enjoyment of Old and Middle English texts.

In 1925, Tolkien left Leeds for Oxford, becoming Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon. Because Oxford is so closely associated with him, readers sometimes overlook Leeds as the first university to employ him in an academic teaching role. The move began the long Oxford career that made him internationally known as both scholar and author.