Tolkien and Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics

Tolkien bucked a lot of trends in his day, and that extended even to his professional work. His influence is perhaps strongest with regard to the Old English poem Beowulf, and in this video I discuss some of his ideas as presented in a lecture (now available as an essay) titled "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics."

You can find a copy of the essay here: https://www.amazon.com/Monsters-Critics-Essays-J-R-R-Tolkien/dp/026110263X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1508071811&sr=8-1&keywords=the+monsters+and+the+critics+and+other+essays

You can also get Tolkien's own translation of the poem here: https://www.amazon.com/Beowulf-Translation-Commentary-J-R-R-Tolkien/dp/0544570308/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1508071762&sr=8-3&keywords=beowulf

Also, a quick note on the video--I recorded it as usual but for some reason the clips came out truncated and so there's a bit missing at the transitions. Nothing critical left out, luckily, and hopefully I won't have this problem again!