Which 1936 work by J.R.R. Tolkien became a landmark study of the poem Beowulf?

J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1936 lecture and essay is titled Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics. He first delivered it as the Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial Lecture at the British Academy on 25 November 1936.

The essay argued that Beowulf should be valued as a work of poetry, not merely as a historical source or a collection of evidence about Anglo-Saxon society. Tolkien defended the poem’s monsters, especially Grendel and the dragon, as central to its artistic structure.

The work transformed modern Beowulf criticism and remains one of Tolkien’s most influential scholarly publications. It is sometimes confused with Tolkien’s translations or with The Battle of Maldon, another Old English poem he studied. The title’s reference to “the critics” reflects the academic debate Tolkien was challenging.