J.R.R. Tolkien wrote his influential 1936 lecture about the Old English epic Beowulf.
Tolkien delivered “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics” as a lecture in 1936. He argued that scholars had focused too heavily on historical fragments and linguistic evidence while undervaluing the poem as a work of imaginative literature. His defense of the monsters, especially Grendel and the dragon, became highly influential in Beowulf studies.
The poem tells of the hero Beowulf’s battles first with Grendel, then with Grendel’s mother, and finally with a dragon. Tolkien considered the poem’s structure and its meditation on mortality central to its power.
The lecture also helps explain Tolkien’s literary interests. His professional study of Old English, Germanic legend, and heroic poetry supplied ideas and methods that informed his own fiction. The essay is not a translation of Beowulf; it is a critical interpretation of the poem.