Which university did J.R.R. Tolkien teach at from 1925 to 1945?

J.R.R. Tolkien taught at the University of Oxford from 1925 to 1945.

In 1925, Tolkien became Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford. He held that post until 1945, when he moved to the Merton Professorship of English Language and Literature, also at Oxford. He remained at Merton until his retirement in 1959.

Tolkien’s Oxford career was built on expertise in Old and Middle English, philology, and medieval literature. His work on language was not separate from his fiction: he developed invented languages with historical sound patterns, grammar, and relationships, much as real languages evolve over time. His academic interests also shaped his understanding of myth, heroic literature, and textual tradition.

Tolkien was associated with several Oxford colleges during his life, including Exeter College, where he studied, and Pembroke College, where he taught. This can cause confusion when the question asks for the university rather than a specific college. The correct institution was the University of Oxford, not Cambridge or another British university.