What was J.R.R. Tolkien's Oxford professorship called when he taught Old English?

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

He occupied the professorship from 1925 to 1945. The position reflected his expertise in Old English language and literature, including the study of texts such as Beowulf. Tolkien's academic work was central to his career, even though popular culture often presents him primarily as a novelist.

After 1945, he became Merton Professor of English Language and Literature at Oxford, a post he held until his retirement in 1959. The two professorships are therefore easy to confuse, especially because both were at Oxford and both related to his language scholarship.

Tolkien's knowledge of historical languages informed his fiction. He constructed languages with attention to sound change, grammar, and relationships between languages, while his scholarship on medieval texts helped shape the mythic depth and linguistic texture of Middle-earth.