Beowulf: the monsters and the critics
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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 published in 1983 in The Monsters and the Critics.
This paper is widely regarded as a formative work in early 20th century Beowulf studies; some claim that without it, the poem, Beowulf, might not be studied today. In this talk, Tolkien speaks against critics who play down the fantastic elements of the poem (Grendel, Grendel's Mother, the dragon, etc.) 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. Later critics who disagreed with Tolkien on this point have routinely had to cite him and systematically defend their arguments.
This lecture is available in several book forms including the following:
Nicholson, Lewis E. (Ed.) (1963). An Anthology of Beowulf Criticism. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press. ISBN 0-268-00006-9
| 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 publications : 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) |
| Academic Works : A Middle English Vocabulary (1922) • Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (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) |
