Which 1936 lecture by J.R.R. Tolkien became a landmark defense of monsters in Beowulf?

“Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics” is J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1936 lecture defending the importance of the monsters in Beowulf.

Tolkien argued that earlier scholars had often treated the poem mainly as evidence for Germanic history, language, or archaeology. He insisted that Beowulf should also be read as a work of imaginative literature, with its monsters and tragic structure central to its artistic design.

The lecture was delivered as a prestigious Oxford address and later published in written form. It helped transform modern Beowulf criticism and remains one of Tolkien’s most influential scholarly works. The title is sometimes shortened informally to “The Monsters and the Critics,” but the full title identifies Beowulf explicitly.