Which 1936 lecture by J.R.R. Tolkien argued for taking Beowulf's monsters seriously?

J.R.R. Tolkien's 1936 lecture arguing for taking Beowulf's monsters seriously was Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics.

Tolkien delivered the lecture as the Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial Lecture at the British Academy in London on 25 November 1936. It was later published in 1937. The essay challenged approaches that treated Beowulf mainly as a historical document or a source of information about Germanic society.

Tolkien argued that the poem’s monsters—especially Grendel and the dragon—are central to its artistic design. He compared the poem to a tower, suggesting that critics should value its structure and imaginative achievement rather than dismantle it only for historical fragments.

The lecture became one of the most influential modern works of Beowulf criticism. It also helps explain Tolkien’s own attraction to mythic conflict, heroic traditions and the tension between human life and mortality. It is not the same essay as “On Fairy-Stories,” which concerns fantasy and fairy-story theory.