Which Oxford college employed J.R.R. Tolkien as Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor?

J.R.R. Tolkien was the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College, Oxford.

He held that professorship from 1925 until 1945. The position reflected his academic expertise in Old English language and literature, the field that includes works such as Beowulf. Tolkien’s scholarly work was highly influential, especially his 1936 lecture and essay “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics.”

After 1945, Tolkien became the Merton Professor of English Language and Literature at Merton College, Oxford, where he remained until his retirement in 1959. This change is the source of a common mix-up: Pembroke is the correct college for his Rawlinson and Bosworth professorship, while Merton is associated with his later chair.

Tolkien wrote much of The Hobbit and the early parts of The Lord of the Rings while living and teaching in Oxford. His academic study of languages, myths, and medieval texts deeply informed his fictional world-building.