Which university awarded J.R.R. Tolkien an honorary doctorate in 1972?

The University of Oxford awarded J.R.R. Tolkien an honorary doctorate in 1972.

Tolkien had a long academic relationship with Oxford. He studied at Exeter College, later taught at the university, and held the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon before becoming Merton Professor of English Language and Literature. He retired from his Oxford professorship in 1959.

In 1972, Oxford awarded him an honorary Doctor of Letters. The honor came after the publication of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings had made him internationally famous, while his scholarly work in philology and medieval literature remained central to his reputation. This honorary doctorate is distinct from Tolkien’s earned Oxford degrees and from the academic positions he held there.