What was the title of J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1936 lecture that reshaped modern study of Beowulf?

J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1936 lecture was titled “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics.” It was delivered as the Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial Lecture at the British Academy on 25 November 1936.

The lecture argued that Beowulf should be valued primarily as a work of poetry rather than treated merely as a historical source or a collection of folklore. Tolkien defended the artistic importance of the poem’s monsters, especially Grendel and the dragon.

The essay based on the lecture was published in 1937 and became one of the most influential pieces of modern Beowulf criticism. It helped shift scholarly attention toward the poem’s structure, imagery, symbolism, and literary unity.

The title is sometimes confused with “On Fairy-Stories,” another major Tolkien lecture, or with his work on The Battle of Maldon. Those are separate scholarly texts. The Beowulf lecture’s exact title combines the poem’s name with its central challenge to the critics.