The Anglo-Saxon poem J.R.R. Tolkien famously discussed in his 1936 essay was Beowulf. His lecture and essay, titled “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics,” helped reshape modern academic appreciation of the poem.
Tolkien argued that scholars should take Beowulf’s monsters seriously as central artistic elements rather than treating them as distractions from historical information. He emphasized the poem’s structure, symbolism, and imaginative power, especially its treatment of Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the dragon.
The essay became one of the most influential works of Beowulf criticism. Tolkien’s approach also reflects his own interests as a philologist and storyteller. Beowulf is sometimes grouped with other Old English poems such as The Wanderer, but Tolkien’s landmark essay specifically addressed Beowulf.