Which university employed J.R.R. Tolkien as a professor from 1925 until his retirement?

The University of Oxford employed J.R.R. Tolkien as a professor from 1925 until his retirement in 1959.

Tolkien first held the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford. In 1945 he transferred to the Merton Professorship of English Language and Literature, remaining in that role until he retired. He continued writing, revising, and publishing after leaving his chair.

Tolkien had also worked at the University of Leeds earlier in his career, serving as a reader and then professor of English language. That Leeds period is a common source of confusion when identifying the university most associated with his long professorial career.

Oxford gave Tolkien an academic setting closely connected with medieval languages and literature. His teaching and scholarship, including work on Old and Middle English, helped provide the linguistic foundation for the invented histories and languages of Middle-earth.