J.R.R. Tolkien analyzed Beowulf in his influential 1936 lecture “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics.” The lecture was later published and became one of the most important modern contributions to Beowulf scholarship.
Tolkien argued that critics should take the poem’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, helping shift attention toward Beowulf as a work of literature.
Tolkien’s expertise in Old English was part of his professional identity long before The Lord of the Rings became famous. Beowulf also resonated with his own creative interests: the poem features a hero, a treasure-hoarding dragon and a deeply layered heroic past. It is not a Tolkien story, however, and its hero is not one of Tolkien’s invented characters.