Which Oxford chair did J.R.R. Tolkien hold from 1925 to 1945?

From 1925 to 1945, J.R.R. Tolkien held the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University.

The chair was based at Pembroke College, Oxford, where Tolkien taught Old English, early Germanic languages, and related subjects. His academic work focused on the languages and literature of the Middle Ages, including Old English and Middle English texts.

Tolkien left this position in 1945 when he became Merton Professor of English Language and Literature at Merton College. He held the Merton chair until his retirement in 1959. The two professorships are therefore easy to confuse, but they belonged to different stages of his Oxford career.

His scholarly expertise strongly influenced his fiction. Knowledge of Germanic legend, Old English poetry, and medieval naming traditions helped shape the languages, histories, and cultures of Middle-earth. His 1936 lecture “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics” also became highly influential in the study of the poem.