Beowulf was the medieval poem that J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1936 lecture famously helped bring to wider literary attention.
In “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics,” Tolkien argued that the poem should be valued as a work of imaginative literature, not merely mined as evidence about Germanic history or language. He defended its monsters, especially Grendel and the dragon, as central to its artistic design.
The lecture became one of the most influential works of modern Beowulf criticism. Tolkien’s scholarship did not discover the poem, which had long been known to specialists, but it strongly changed how many readers and academics approached it. His interest in heroic poetry, monsters, elegy, and ancient languages also connects directly with recurring themes in his own fiction.