What was the title of J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1936 lecture that influenced his view of Beowulf?

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

Tolkien delivered the lecture at Oxford on 25 November 1936, and it was published in 1937. He argued that earlier scholars had focused too heavily on historical and linguistic details while undervaluing the poem as a work of art.

A central part of his argument was that the monsters, especially Grendel and the dragon, were not embarrassing distractions from the poem’s serious themes. Instead, they were essential to its structure and meaning.

The lecture became one of the most influential modern studies of Beowulf. It also helps explain Tolkien’s own appreciation for mythic storytelling, heroic courage, mortality, and the confrontation between human beings and monstrous forces. The title is sometimes confused with Tolkien’s separate essay On Fairy-Stories.