The Timeless Epic of Beowulf

Foundations of heroism & sacrifice

While J.R.R. Tolkien crafted The Lord of the Rings, the medieval poem Beowulf was arguably the one work of literature that inspired him more than any other. For 25 years the Oxford professor studied the Old English epic — convinced it had layers of meaning that others overlooked.

In 1936, Tolkien delivered a lecture entitled "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics.” In it, he laid out a groundbreaking interpretation of the poem that didn't just revive Beowulf’s status as a masterpiece, but reshaped the way his peers understood heroism, sacrifice, and the battle against evil. Through Tolkien’s work with The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, this understanding lives on and still influences us today.

But what is Beowulf, and why did Tolkien see it as the key to creating his own life’s work? Well, what he discovered changed the face of literature forever…

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The Story of Beowulf

Beowulf is an Old English epic poem set in 6th-century Scandinavia, composed around the 8th to 10th centuries. It’s the oldest surviving epic written in the English language, and survives in a single manuscript, the Nowell Codex — written by Christian scribes looking back on their culture’s pagan past.

The first page of Beowulf, Nowell Codex (c.975 – 1025 AD)

The poem blends myth, history, and moral allegory to offer readers a glimpse into the warrior culture of the Anglo-Saxons (although curiously, the poem doesn’t feature any Anglo-Saxons, nor does it take place in England!).

The story follows the heroic Geat warrior Beowulf as he travels to Denmark to aid King Hrothgar, whose mead hall is terrorized by the “shadow-walker” named Grendel. To give you a sense of the horrifying depth of the epic’s villains, Grendel is described as a descendant of Cain, the treacherous murder of Biblical origin — one who is "wearing God's anger."

One evening, Beowulf finally battles Grendel in hand-to-hand combat, ripping off his arm and forcing the monster to flee to its lair, where it dies.

Grendel illustration by J. R. Skelton (1908)

The Danes celebrate, but their relief is short-lived — Grendel’s vengeful mother strikes the very next night. Beowulf then pursues her to her underwater lair, where he engages in another deadly fight and finally emerges victorious.

At this point, the poem skips ahead several decades — Beowulf has returned home, become king, and ruled for years as a wise and just leader. But one day, a dragon is awakened from its slumber and begins attacking his people. Beowulf faces down the dragon and slays it, but not before he’s mortally wounded…

Beowulf and the Dragon, Rockwell Kent (1931)

As the Geat king dies from his wounds, the poem ends with his people mourning over their fallen leader:

On a height they kindled the hugest of all

funeral fires; fumes of woodsmoke

billowed darkly up, the blaze roared

and drowned out their weeping, wind died down

and flames wrought havoc in the hot bone-house,

burning it to the core. They were disconsolate

and wailed aloud for their lord’s decease.

A Geat woman too sang out in grief;

with hair bound up, she unburdened herself

of her worst fears, a wild litany

of nightmare and lament: her nation invaded,

enemies on the rampage, bodies in piles,

slavery and abasement. Heaven swallowed the smoke.

The Death of Beowulf, John Henry Frederick Bacon (1910)

The poem Beowulf meditates on mortality, legacy, and the fragility of order in a chaotic world. It is as much about the hero’s quest for glory as it is about the impermanence of human life. But people didn't always view it as such…

Tolkien’s Revolutionary Reading

So, what did Tolkien see in it that nobody else could?

At the time he began studying Beowulf, the poem was valued predominantly as a historical and linguistic artifact. Scholars mined it for clues about Anglo-Saxon culture, but dismissed its literary merits. Tolkien argued this was misguided, and declared that Beowulf should be studied not as a historical curiosity but as a work of art.

Central to Tolkien’s interpretation were the monsters: Grendel, his mother, and the dragon. These creatures, Tolkien argued, were not just fantastical enemies but symbolic representations of life’s inevitable struggles.