What was J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1936 lecture on the Old English epic Beowulf called?

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

Tolkien delivered the lecture at the British Academy on 25 November 1936. He argued that critics had placed too much emphasis on using Beowulf as historical evidence and had neglected its artistic structure. His central argument treated the poem as a work of literature rather than merely a source of information about Anglo-Saxon society.

Tolkien defended the importance of the poem’s monsters, especially Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the dragon. He suggested that these figures were not embarrassing distractions from the poem’s serious themes but essential to its design. The lecture helped reshape modern academic discussion of Beowulf.

Tolkien’s scholarship on Old English also influenced his fiction. His interest in heroic poetry, dragons, northern courage, and inherited legend can be felt in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, although Middle-earth is not a direct retelling of Beowulf.