Which Oxford subject did J.R.R. Tolkien teach from 1945 to 1959?

J.R.R. Tolkien taught English language and literature at Oxford from 1945 to 1959.

He held the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon from 1925 until 1945, then became Merton Professor of English Language and Literature. His academic work focused especially on Old and Middle English, philology, medieval texts, and the history of languages.

Tolkien retired from his Oxford professorship in 1959, although he continued writing and corresponding about his scholarly and creative work. His academic expertise was closely connected to his fiction: knowledge of Germanic languages, medieval literature, and northern European myth helped shape the names, histories, and poetic traditions of Middle-earth. His 1936 lecture and essay Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics also became highly influential in Beowulf studies.