The Old English poem that inspired J.R.R. Tolkien’s major essay about monsters was Beowulf. His 1936 lecture, published as “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics,” became one of the most influential modern studies of the poem.
Tolkien argued that Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the dragon were not embarrassing distractions from historical material. Instead, he treated the monsters as central to Beowulf’s artistic design and its exploration of courage, mortality, and evil.
Tolkien’s scholarship on Beowulf also influenced his fiction. The poem’s heroic culture, dragon lore, treasure, and elegiac mood have often been discussed alongside The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Beowulf remains an Old English poem, not a Tolkien composition, and Tolkien’s contribution was critical interpretation rather than authorship.