J.R.R. Tolkien became a professor of English language and literature at Merton College, Oxford, in 1945.
Tolkien had already held important academic posts at Oxford. He was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon from 1925 to 1945, then moved to Merton College when he became Merton Professor of English Language and Literature. He held that chair until his retirement in 1959.
Merton College is one of Oxford’s historic colleges, founded in the thirteenth century. Tolkien’s period there overlapped with the completion and publication of The Lord of the Rings, although his writing schedule was not simply a product of his professorship.
This college is distinct from Pembroke College, where Tolkien taught during his earlier Oxford career. It is also distinct from Exeter College, where he studied as an undergraduate. These three Oxford associations are frequently confused because each was important at a different stage of his life.