J.R.R. Tolkien discussed the Old English poem Beowulf in his influential 1936 lecture.
The lecture was titled “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics” and was delivered at Oxford on 25 November 1936. Tolkien argued that scholars had focused too heavily on historical details and had undervalued the poem as a work of literature.
He defended the importance of Beowulf’s monsters, especially Grendel, Grendel’s mother and the dragon. In Tolkien’s view, these figures were not distractions from the poem’s serious themes; they were central to its structure and meaning.
The lecture was published in 1937 and became one of the most influential pieces of modern Beowulf criticism. Tolkien’s scholarship on Old English literature also influenced his fiction, particularly his treatment of monsters, heroic cultures and doomed kingdoms.