J.R.R. Tolkien delivered the 1936 lecture later published as Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics.
The essay argued that Beowulf should be valued as a work of poetry rather than treated mainly as a historical document or a source of information about Germanic society. Tolkien defended the poem’s structure, imagery, and treatment of monsters, especially Grendel and the dragon, against approaches that had dominated earlier scholarship.
The lecture became one of the most influential modern studies of Beowulf. Tolkien’s expertise in Old English supported his academic career, while the poem’s heroic themes and northern atmosphere also resonated with his creative imagination. The essay’s title is sometimes mistaken for a separate modern book by another author, but it is Tolkien’s own landmark contribution to Beowulf criticism.