Which Oxford university held J.R.R. Tolkien’s academic post as Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor?

J.R.R. Tolkien held the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon at the University of Oxford.

He was elected to the post in 1925 and held it until 1945. The chair was based at Oxford’s Pembroke College, where Tolkien taught Old English and related subjects. His scholarly work included major contributions to the study of Germanic languages and medieval literature, and his expertise in philology strongly shaped the languages and histories he invented.

Tolkien later became Merton Professor of English Language and Literature at Oxford, serving from 1945 until his retirement in 1959. These two professorships are sometimes confused because both were Oxford appointments. Tolkien also worked briefly at the University of Leeds earlier in his career, but the Rawlinson and Bosworth chair specifically belonged to Oxford and focused on Anglo-Saxon studies.