Which 1936 Tolkien lecture argued that Beowulf should be valued as poetry, not merely historical evidence?

Tolkien’s 1936 lecture arguing for Beowulf as poetry was “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics.”

Tolkien delivered the lecture as the prestigious British Academy’s Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial Lecture on 25 November 1936. It was published in the Proceedings of the British Academy in 1937.

The lecture challenged approaches that treated Beowulf mainly as a source for historical 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.

The essay became one of the most influential works of modern Beowulf criticism. Its argument helped encourage readers and scholars to examine the poem as a carefully structured work of literature. Tolkien’s own interest in monsters, heroic tragedy, and ancient languages also connects the lecture to themes that appear throughout his fiction.