J.R.R. Tolkien studied and practiced philology, the historical study of languages and texts. His philological training shaped both his academic career and the languages, names, and histories of Middle-earth.
At Oxford, Tolkien studied classics before focusing on English language and literature. His scholarly interests included Old English, Middle English, Old Norse, Gothic, Welsh, Finnish, and other languages or literary traditions. Philology allowed him to examine how words change over time and how languages relate to one another, an approach reflected in the imagined histories of Quenya, Sindarin, and other tongues.
The term philology is sometimes confused with linguistics or simply with language learning. It overlaps with historical linguistics but traditionally combines language history with the close study of written texts. Tolkien’s famous essay “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics” also demonstrated how his specialist knowledge could change the way medieval literature was read.