What is the name of J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1936 lecture about the Old English poem Beowulf?

J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1936 lecture about Beowulf was titled “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics.”

Tolkien delivered the lecture at the British Academy in London on 25 November 1936. He argued that Beowulf should be judged as a unified work of literature, rather than treated mainly as a source of historical or linguistic information. His defense of the poem’s monsters, especially Grendel and the dragon, became highly influential in Beowulf scholarship.

The lecture changed how many scholars approached the poem’s structure and imagination. Tolkien’s own academic training in Old English gave him unusual authority on the text, while his creative interest in dragons and heroic legend made the argument especially memorable. “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics” was later published in the Proceedings of the British Academy and remains one of his best-known scholarly works.