What was the name of J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1925 Oxford academic post?

J.R.R. Tolkien held the post of Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon from 1925.

The University of Oxford appointed Tolkien to this professorship in 1925, when he was based at Pembroke College. The position focused on Old English language and literature, including the texts and linguistic history that shaped his scholarly career.

Tolkien’s Oxford research and teaching informed his fiction in several ways. His expertise in Old English helped inspire names, sounds, and historical layers in Middle-earth, while his interest in myth and language supported the creation of elaborate fictional cultures. His 1936 lecture “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics” became especially influential in literary scholarship.

In 1945 Tolkien moved to Merton College as Merton Professor of English Language and Literature. That later title is often given as the answer when the question concerns his career generally, but the 1925 appointment was specifically the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon.