Which 1936 Tolkien lecture became the essay “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics”?

Tolkien’s 1936 lecture became the essay “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics.”

Tolkien delivered the lecture at Oxford on 25 November 1936. He argued that scholars had undervalued the poem’s artistic structure by treating it mainly as historical evidence or as a source for studying Germanic culture. Tolkien insisted that Beowulf should be read as a work of literature.

His argument helped change Beowulf criticism. He emphasized the central role of the poem’s monsters—Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the dragon—and defended the poet’s decision to build a unified tragedy around them. The essay was published in 1937 and became one of the most influential modern studies of the poem.

The title is sometimes mistaken for a Tolkien fiction title. It is a scholarly work, not a Middle-earth story, although its discussion of monsters and heroic literature illuminates Tolkien’s creative interests.