Which Oxford university held J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1925 professorship of Anglo-Saxon?

J.R.R. Tolkien held his 1925 professorship of Anglo-Saxon at the University of Oxford.

He became Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford, a post he held until 1945. He then became Merton Professor of English Language and Literature, also at Oxford, remaining in that position until 1959.

Tolkien’s academic work focused on languages, philology, and medieval literature. His expertise in Old English, Old Norse, Welsh, Finnish, and other languages strongly shaped the sound and structure of the languages he created for Middle-earth. His famous 1936 lecture “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics” helped redirect scholarly attention toward the poem’s artistic qualities.

Cambridge is a plausible alternative because Tolkien studied at Exeter College, Oxford, and later taught at the University of Leeds before returning to Oxford. The relevant institution for the 1925 chair, however, was Oxford.