Which university did J.R.R. Tolkien attend as an undergraduate before beginning his academic career?

J.R.R. Tolkien attended the University of Oxford as an undergraduate before beginning his academic career.

He studied Classics at Exeter College, Oxford, after winning a scholarship and entering the university in 1911. He later changed his course to English Language and Literature, a decision that aligned closely with his gifts as a philologist and his lifelong interest in the history of languages.

Tolkien completed his degree in 1915 with first-class honours. His university education helped establish the scholarly foundation for both his professional work and his fiction. At Oxford he studied Old and Middle English, Old Norse, Welsh, Finnish, and other linguistic traditions that informed his invented languages and imagined histories.

Tolkien later returned to Oxford as a professor. He taught at Pembroke College from 1925 and at Merton College from 1945. The University of Oxford therefore describes both his undergraduate education and the academic setting in which he developed much of his mature work.