J.R.R. Tolkien addressed Beowulf criticism in his 1936 lecture later published as “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics.”
Tolkien delivered the lecture as the Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial Lecture at the British Academy on 25 November 1936. He argued that scholars had focused too heavily on historical and linguistic details while neglecting the poem’s artistic unity and imaginative power.
A central part of Tolkien’s argument was that Beowulf’s monsters—especially Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the dragon—were not embarrassing distractions from the poem’s serious historical content. Instead, they were essential to its structure and meaning. Tolkien’s approach helped change the direction of Beowulf scholarship.
The essay was published in 1937 and became one of the most influential modern discussions of the Old English poem. It is not a retelling of Beowulf, nor is it primarily a study of Tolkien’s own fiction. Its subject is the critical interpretation of the poem.