Which Oxford college did J.R.R. Tolkien join as a professor in 1945?

J.R.R. Tolkien joined Merton College as a professor in 1945.

In 1945, Tolkien moved from the University of Leeds to Oxford’s Merton College, where he became the Merton Professor of English Language and Literature. He held that chair until his retirement in 1959. His Merton appointment followed his earlier period as Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford from 1925 to 1945.

At Merton, Tolkien continued his academic work on languages, medieval literature, and Old and Middle English texts. His scholarly expertise strongly influenced the invented languages, names, poems, and historical texture of Middle-earth. He also continued revising and developing The Lord of the Rings during this period.

Tolkien’s Oxford career is sometimes simplified because he is remembered primarily as a novelist. In fact, he was a specialist philologist and university teacher for most of his professional life. Merton College is therefore distinct from the earlier Oxford post he held before 1945 and from the University of Leeds, where he taught from 1920 to 1925.