What was the name of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Oxford professorship from 1945 to 1959?

J.R.R. Tolkien was the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford from 1945 to 1959. The post was attached to the study of Old English language and literature.

Tolkien had previously held the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship’s teaching and research responsibilities while building his academic reputation through work on languages, medieval texts, and philology. His scholarship on Old English, Middle English, and related Germanic languages influenced generations of students and readers.

The title is easy to confuse with Tolkien’s later Oxford position, the Merton Professor of English Language and Literature. He held that Merton chair from 1959 until his retirement in 1964. His professional career therefore included two distinct Oxford professorships, both connected to language and literature but carrying different formal titles.