What was J.R.R. Tolkien’s official Oxford academic title when he became a professor in 1925?

In 1925, J.R.R. Tolkien became the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University.

The chair was based at Pembroke College, where Tolkien taught Old English language and literature. His academic work included philology, the historical study of languages, and detailed research into texts such as Beowulf. His scholarly expertise strongly influenced the languages, names, and poetic traditions of Middle-earth.

Tolkien held the professorship until 1945. He then moved to Merton College and became the Merton Professor of English Language and Literature, a position he retained until his retirement in 1959.

The title is sometimes shortened to “Professor of Anglo-Saxon,” but the formal name matters because the Rawlinson and Bosworth chair was a specific Oxford post. Tolkien’s academic career was not simply an occupation alongside his fiction; it was central to the way he constructed believable invented languages and histories.