What was J.R.R. Tolkien’s Oxford professorship called from 1945 to 1959?

J.R.R. Tolkien held the title Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford from 1945 to 1959.

The professorship was based at Pembroke College, Oxford, where Tolkien taught Old English, Middle English, and related subjects. His academic work centered on historical languages and medieval literature, especially texts such as Beowulf, which he also helped bring to a wider modern audience.

Tolkien had previously been Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford, and in 1959 he retired from that chair. He later held a fellowship at Merton College while continuing his literary work.

The title is sometimes simplified to “Oxford English professor,” but that wording loses the specific historical name of the post. Tolkien’s academic expertise in Germanic languages and medieval texts deeply informed the languages, names, poems, and traditions of his fiction.