What was J.R.R. Tolkien’s profession at Oxford University before his retirement?

J.R.R. Tolkien was a professor of English language and literature at Oxford University before his retirement.

Tolkien held several academic posts at Oxford. He became Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College in 1925, then Merton Professor of English Language and Literature at Merton College in 1945. He remained at Merton until his retirement in 1959.

His academic work centered on languages, medieval literature, and philology, the historical study of language. Tolkien’s expertise in Old English, Middle English, Old Norse, Welsh, Finnish, and other languages strongly influenced the creation of his fictional languages and cultures.

People sometimes describe Tolkien simply as an English professor, but his formal Oxford titles changed during his career. His literary fame grew alongside his scholarship, especially after The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings became widely read.