J.R.R. Tolkien studied Beowulf in his famous 1936 lecture, “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics.”
The lecture argued that scholars had undervalued the poem’s monsters and imaginative structure by treating it mainly as historical evidence. Tolkien presented Beowulf as a carefully shaped work of literature, with Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the dragon central to its meaning.
The lecture was delivered at the British Academy on 25 November 1936 and published in 1937. It became one of the most influential modern discussions of the Old English epic.
Tolkien’s scholarship on Beowulf also influenced his creative work. His expertise in Old English language, poetry, and heroic tradition informed the atmosphere and vocabulary of Middle-earth, though Beowulf itself is not a direct source for a single Tolkien character.