What was the title of J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1936 lecture on the Old English poem Beowulf?

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

Tolkien delivered the lecture at the British Academy on 25 November 1936. It became one of the most influential modern discussions of Beowulf because it argued that the poem should be treated as a work of art, not merely as historical evidence or a source for studying Germanic customs.

He defended the importance of the poem’s monsters, especially Grendel and the dragon. Earlier scholarship had often focused heavily on historical fragments, linguistic details, or the poem’s relationship to other traditions. Tolkien argued that these approaches could obscure the structure and artistic unity of the poem itself.

The lecture helped reshape Beowulf criticism and remains important in both Tolkien studies and Old English scholarship. On Fairy-Stories is another famous Tolkien essay, but it concerns fantasy and storytelling rather than being the title of his major Beowulf lecture.