aerial photograph of Merton College, Oxford University, England, UK. Merton College was founded by Edward I's Chancellor, Walter de Merton in 1264 and is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. The colleges full name is " The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford" and contains the worlds oldest academic library still in use. J. R. R. Tolkien was Professor of English Language and Literature here from 1945 to 1959. When Tolkeins's wife Edith passed away in 1971, he returned to Merton and was given lodgings at the college for his final years until he too passed away in 1973.