Which Tolkien essay, first delivered in 1936, transformed modern discussion of Beowulf?

J.R.R. Tolkien’s essay Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics was first delivered in 1936 and transformed modern discussion of the poem.

Tolkien presented the lecture at Oxford on 25 November 1936. He argued that critics had focused too heavily on using Beowulf as historical evidence and had undervalued its artistic structure, imagery, and treatment of monsters.

The essay defended the poem’s unity and treated Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the dragon as central to its design rather than as embarrassing leftovers from an earlier age. Tolkien’s approach helped establish Beowulf as a work of literature worthy of close reading in its own right.

The essay was published in 1937 in the Proceedings of the British Academy. It is often confused with On Fairy-Stories, another influential Tolkien lecture, but that work concerns the nature and functions of fairy stories rather than Beowulf specifically.