Which 1936 lecture by J.R.R. Tolkien defended Beowulf as literature?

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

Tolkien delivered the lecture at Oxford on 25 November 1936. He argued that critics should not treat Beowulf merely as a damaged historical source or a container for information about early Germanic society. Instead, he emphasized the poem’s artistic structure, especially the central role of its monsters and its meditation on mortality.

The lecture became one of the most influential modern studies of Beowulf. Tolkien’s interpretation helped shift attention toward the poem’s unity and literary craftsmanship. It also reveals why the Old English epic mattered so much to him as both a scholar and a storyteller. On Fairy-Stories is another important Tolkien essay, but it concerns the nature and function of fairy stories rather than being the title of the Beowulf lecture.