Which college did J.R.R. Tolkien attend at Oxford University?

J.R.R. Tolkien attended Exeter College at Oxford University.

He entered Exeter College in 1911 to study Classics, but later changed his academic focus to English Language and Literature. His Oxford education provided a foundation in languages and medieval texts that became important both to his scholarship and to his creative work.

Tolkien’s association with Exeter College is sometimes mixed up with his later academic appointments. He was a fellow and tutor at Pembroke College from 1925, and he moved to Merton College in 1945 when he became Merton Professor of English Language and Literature. Those colleges were important later in his career, but Exeter was his undergraduate college.

While studying at Oxford, Tolkien developed a strong interest in philology and historical languages. He also began creating and refining invented languages, an activity that eventually became closely connected with the peoples, histories, and legends of Middle-earth.