Which university employed J.R.R. Tolkien as a professor of Anglo-Saxon and English literature?

The University of Oxford employed J.R.R. Tolkien as a professor of Anglo-Saxon and English literature.

Tolkien held several Oxford academic posts during his career. He became Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon in 1925, a position he kept until 1945. He then became Merton Professor of English Language and Literature, remaining at Oxford until his retirement in 1959.

His academic work focused especially on Old and Middle English, philology, medieval literature, and historical language development. His expertise in languages and early texts strongly influenced the depth of Middle-earth’s invented languages, histories, genealogies, and poetry.

Tolkien did not teach only creative writing, and Oxford was not merely a publisher or literary club connected with him. He was a professional medievalist whose fiction developed alongside a long academic career. He also spent a period teaching at the University of Leeds before returning to Oxford.