What was J.R.R. Tolkien’s Oxford academic title in Old English studies?

J.R.R. Tolkien held the title Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at the University of Oxford.

He occupied the chair from 1925 to 1945, teaching and researching Old English language and literature. The professorship was one of the most significant academic positions in Tolkien’s career and reflected his expertise in historical linguistics, philology, and medieval texts.

Tolkien then became Merton Professor of English Language and Literature at Oxford, a position he held from 1945 until his retirement in 1959. His academic work included influential writing on Beowulf, Chaucer, medieval Welsh, and the history of English. His professional study of language and old texts informed his fiction, but his novels were not simply textbooks in disguise; they developed their own invented histories, cultures, and narrative forms.