What was J.R.R. Tolkien’s Oxford professorship from 1925?

From 1925, J.R.R. Tolkien was the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford.

He held the chair at Pembroke College, Oxford, where he taught Old English, Germanic philology, and related subjects. The professorship reflected his scholarly expertise in the languages and literature of early medieval England, especially the linguistic world behind texts such as Beowulf.

Tolkien later moved to Oxford’s Merton College and became the Merton Professor of English Language and Literature in 1945. Because both posts were prestigious Oxford professorships, biographical summaries sometimes substitute the later title for the earlier one.

His academic work and imaginative writing were deeply connected. Knowledge of Old English, Norse myth, medieval heroic poetry, and historical language change informed the names, cultures, and narrative traditions of Middle-earth. Tolkien nevertheless rejected the idea that his fiction was merely an allegorical version of medieval scholarship. His professional career continued alongside the long development of The Lord of the Rings and his other legendarium writings.