Which university employed J.R.R. Tolkien as a professor of Anglo-Saxon from 1925?

The University of Oxford employed J.R.R. Tolkien as a professor of Anglo-Saxon from 1925.

Tolkien was appointed Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford in 1925. The position focused on the language and literature of early medieval England, especially Old English texts. His scholarly expertise in languages, philology, and medieval literature strongly influenced the invented languages and historical depth of his fiction.

Before taking the Oxford chair, Tolkien had worked at the University of Leeds, where he became a professor of English language. At Oxford, he taught and researched for decades, balancing academic work with the development of Middle-earth.

The wording matters because Tolkien held several different Oxford roles. He was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon from 1925 to 1945, then Merton Professor of English Language and Literature from 1945 until his retirement in 1959. These are distinct chairs, although both belonged to the University of Oxford.

His academic career was not separate from his fiction: philology was one of the principal foundations of his creative method.