Which Oxford university subject did J.R.R. Tolkien teach as a professor?

J.R.R. Tolkien taught English language and literature as an Oxford professor.

Tolkien held major academic posts at Oxford. From 1925 to 1945, he was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College. In 1945 he moved to Merton College and became Merton Professor of English Language and Literature, a position he held until his retirement in 1959.

His academic work focused especially on Old English, Middle English, language history, and medieval literature. His 1936 lecture “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics” helped redirect scholarly attention toward the poem as a work of art as well as a historical document.

Tolkien’s fiction and scholarship influenced each other, but he did not teach a university subject called Middle-earth studies. His professional field was English, particularly the older languages and literatures that also supplied vocabulary, forms, and themes for his creative writing.