J.R.R. Tolkien famously translated and studied the Old English epic Beowulf.
Tolkien was a philologist specializing in Germanic languages and medieval literature. His 1936 lecture “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics” helped transform academic approaches to the poem by arguing that its monsters and mythic structure deserved serious literary attention, not dismissal as historical distractions.
Tolkien also produced a prose translation of Beowulf, though it was not published during his lifetime. It appeared posthumously in 2014 as Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary, edited by Christopher Tolkien. The volume also included “Sellic Spell,” Tolkien’s imaginative reconstruction of an earlier form of the story.
Beowulf’s influence on Tolkien is often discussed alongside his interest in heroic legend, dragons, and ancient languages. However, Beowulf is an Old English poem, not one of Tolkien’s invented Middle-earth texts.