J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1936 essay Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics concerns the Old English poem Beowulf.
Tolkien first delivered the work as a lecture at Oxford in 1936. He argued that earlier scholars had focused too heavily on historical details and had undervalued the poem as a work of art. His essay defended the importance of its monsters, especially Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the dragon.
The argument helped reshape modern scholarship on Beowulf. Tolkien treated the poem’s structure and imagination as central rather than dismissing its supernatural elements as distractions from history. His approach also influenced generations of readers and writers.
The essay is separate from Tolkien’s fiction, although its emphasis on dragons, heroic courage, mortality, and the past’s shadows resonates with themes in Middle-earth. Tolkien’s expertise in Old English was a major part of his academic identity long before his novels made him famous.