J.R.R. Tolkien initially studied Classics at Oxford before changing to English Language and Literature.
He entered Exeter College in 1911 and began in the Classics course, which covered the languages and literature of ancient Greece and Rome. Tolkien’s deeper enthusiasm for languages eventually led him to change direction. His later studies in English included Old and Middle English, subjects that became essential to his scholarly work and his invented languages.
This fact differs from Tolkien’s later academic specialty. He became a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford and later professor of English Language and Literature, but those positions describe his career rather than his original degree subject. His early turn from Classics toward philology was a key step in his development as a linguist and writer.