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Beowulf: the Monsters and the Critics is an important 1936 lecture given by J. R. R. Tolkien on the subject of Beowulf criticism. It was first published in that year in Proceedings of the British Academy, 22 (1936), pp. 245–95. It has since been reprinted in many collections, most prominently the 1983 collection of Tolkien's academic papers, The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays, ed. by Christopher Tolkien (London: Allen & Unwin, 1983, pp. 5.48).

This paper is widely regarded as a formative work in early 20th century Beowulf studies. In this talk, Tolkien speaks against critics who play down the fantastic elements of the poem (namely Grendel and the dragon) in favour of using Beowulf solely as a source for Anglo-Saxon history. Tolkien argues that rather than being merely extraneous, these elements are key to the narrative and should be the focus of study. In doing so he drew attention to the previously neglected "literary" qualities of the poem and argued that it should be studied as a work of art, not just as an historical document. Later critics who disagreed with Tolkien on this point have routinely had to cite him and systematically defend their arguments. The paper remains the first port of call for students of the Anglo-Saxon epic and has been quoted admiringly by Nobel-laureate Seamus Heaney in the introduction to his best-selling translation of the poem.

Apart from its importance as a field-defining paper in Beowulf studies, the paper also sheds light on many of Tolkien's ideas about literature and is an indispensable source for those seeking to understand his own writing.

The lecture is based on a longer lecture series which exists in two manuscript versions, published together in 2002 as Beowulf and the Critics by J. R. R. Tolkien, edited by Michael D. C. Drout, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies 248 (Arizona Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies), ISBN 0-8669-8290-6.

[edit] Editions (incomplete list)

• ‘Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics’, Proceedings of the British Academy, 22 (1936), 245–95
• Tolkien, J. R. R. The Monsters and the Critics (1983). London: George Allen & Unwin. ISBN 0-0480-9019-0
• Nicholson, Lewis E. (Ed.) (1963). An Anthology of Beowulf Criticism. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press. ISBN 0-268-00006-9

[edit] See also

• theory of courage

v • d • e J. R. R. Tolkien
Bibliography
Fiction	Songs for the Philologists (1936) • The Hobbit or There and Back Again (1937) • Leaf by Niggle (1945) • The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun (1945) • Farmer Giles of Ham (1949) • The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son (1953) • The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (1954), The Two Towers (1954), The Return of the King (1955) • The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Other Verses from the Red Book (1962) • The Road Goes Ever On (1967) • Tree and Leaf (1964) • The Tolkien Reader (1966) • Smith of Wootton Major (1967)
Posthumous Fiction	The Father Christmas Letters (1976) • The Silmarillion (1977) • Unfinished Tales (1980) • Bilbo's Last Song (1990) • The History of Middle-earth (12 Volumes) (1983–1996) • Roverandom (1998) • The Children of Húrin (2007) • The History of The Hobbit (2007)
Academic	A Middle English Vocabulary (1922) • Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Middle English text, 1925) • Some Contributions to Middle-English Lexicography (1925) • The Devil's Coach Horses (1925) • Ancrene Wisse and Hali Meiðhad (1929) • The Name 'Nodens' (1932) • Sigelwara Land parts I and II, in Medium Aevum (1932-34) • Chaucer as a Philologist: The Reeve's Tale (1934) • Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics (1937) • The Reeve's Tale: version prepared for recitation at the 'summer diversions' (1939) • On Fairy-Stories (1939) • Sir Orfeo (1944) • Ofermod and Beorhtnoth's Death (1953) • Middle English "Losenger": Sketch of an etymological and semantic enquiry (1953) • Ancrene Wisse: The English Text of the Ancrene Riwle (1962) • English and Welsh (1963) • Introduction to Tree and Leaf (1964) • Contributions to the Jerusalem Bible (as translator and lexicographer) (1966) • Tolkien on Tolkien (autobiographical) (1966)
Posthumous Academic	Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, and Sir Orfeo (Modern English translations, 1975) • Finn and Hengest (1982) • The Monsters and the Critics (1983) • Beowulf and the Critics (2002)

v • d • e The Old English poem Beowulf
Characters	Beowulf  · Grendel  · Grendel's mother  · Hroðgar  · Ecgþeow · Hygelac  · Heardred  · Æschere  · Onela  · Wealhþeow  · Wiglaf
Objects and related texts	Heorot  · Hrunting  · Nowell Codex
Scholars and translators	M. H. Abrams  · Michael J. Alexander  · Nora Kershaw Chadwick  · Michael D. C. Drout  · Stephen Greenblatt  · Frederick Klaeber  · Seamus Heaney  · Burton Raffel  · J. R. R. Tolkien  · Charles Leslie Wrenn
Artistic representations	Grendel (novel)  · Grendel, Grendel, Grendel  · Eaters of the Dead  · Beowulf (1999 film)  · The 13th Warrior  · Beowulf & Grendel  · Wrath of Gods  · Beowulf (2007 film)