Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics

About “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics”

"Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics" was a 1936 lecture delivered by J. R. R. Tolkien on the literary criticism of the Old English epic poem Beowulf. The lecture was first published as a paper in the Proceedings of the British Academy and has been reprinted in various collections. It focuses on the analysis of Beowulf as a literary work rather than solely as a historical document. The lecture is known for its scholarly approach to the poem's themes, structure, and the role of its monstrous characters. (Summary adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.)