Which Tolkien work began as a 1936 lecture on the poem Beowulf?

Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics began as a 1936 lecture by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Tolkien delivered the lecture as the Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial Lecture at the British Academy in London on 25 November 1936. It was later published in 1937 and became one of the most influential modern discussions of Beowulf criticism.

Tolkien argued that scholars had often treated the poem mainly as historical evidence or as a collection of sources. He urged readers to consider Beowulf as a coherent work of art, defending the importance of its monsters—especially Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the dragon—to the poem’s structure and meaning.

The lecture helped change the academic reputation of Beowulf and is frequently cited in studies of Old English literature. It is separate from Tolkien’s essay On Fairy-Stories, which addresses fantasy, myth, and literary imagination. Tolkien’s expertise in Old English also shaped his teaching career at Oxford.