What was the name of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Oxford professorship beginning in 1925?

Beginning in 1925, J.R.R. Tolkien held the title Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon.

The professorship was based at Oxford’s Pembroke College, where Tolkien taught Old English and related subjects. His academic expertise included Germanic languages, medieval literature and philology, the historical study of language and texts.

Tolkien held the chair until 1945, when he moved to Merton College to become Merton Professor of English Language and Literature. The change in title reflects a change in institutional position, not a change of identity or subject area: both roles drew on his deep knowledge of medieval languages and literature.

The title is easy to confuse with Tolkien’s later Merton professorship. It is also sometimes shortened to “Anglo-Saxon professor,” but the formal name includes Rawlinson and Bosworth and identifies the specific Oxford chair he occupied from 1925.