Which 1936 lecture by J.R.R. Tolkien argued that Beowulf should be valued as poetry?

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

Tolkien delivered the lecture as the Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial Lecture at the British Academy on 25 November 1936. It challenged approaches that treated Beowulf mainly as a historical document or a source of information about Germanic society.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, were central to its artistic design rather than embarrassing distractions. He described the poem as a balanced structure whose opposing forces give it much of its power and meaning.

The lecture became one of the most influential modern studies of Beowulf. It helped redirect attention toward the poem’s literary unity and imaginative achievement. Tolkien’s argument also became important for later fantasy criticism because it defended the seriousness of mythic and monstrous storytelling.