Beowulf is the Old English epic Tolkien translated and published posthumously as a prose version in 2014.
Tolkien produced his translation of Beowulf during his academic career, alongside extensive commentary on the poem. He did not publish the prose translation during his lifetime, although his famous 1936 lecture “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics” profoundly influenced modern scholarship.
His son Christopher Tolkien edited the translation and commentary for publication as Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary in 2014. The volume also includes Sellic Spell, Tolkien’s imaginative reconstruction of an earlier form of the story.
Tolkien’s expertise in Old English strongly shaped his fiction. Names, monsters, heroic poetry and the texture of Rohan in The Lord of the Rings all reflect his engagement with early Germanic literature.