Tolkein's Criticism of Beowulf

In Tolkein's essay, he has many arguments about the work of different critics who have focused on the historical aspects of Beowulf. His main arguments is that they shouldn't have focused on the history of the text, but on the use of structure, literary elements, and character to create an emotional connection with the reader. He argues that the purpose of Beowulf is to "give that sense of perspective, of antiquity with a greater and yet darker antiquity behind." Tolkein says that Beowulf might not be the greatest epic ever written, but it "has its own individual character, and peculiar solemnity." Slthough I haven't read Beowulf yet, I would have to agree with Tolkein that historical influence is perhaps not the most important aspect of a literary work. For many of us, the first time we read a book, we aren't focused on how the author came to a conclusion, but rather what that conclusion is and how the author causes us, as the reader, to react to it.

The monsters also play into this idea of story development and also serve to separate Beowulf from other epics of a similar subject. By making the monsters enemies of men and gods, Tolkein argues that this makes Beowulf different from previous epics (such as the Aeneid or the Oddessey) where the monsters were mostly just enemies of men and they came from the gods. In Beowulf, they just all around represent sin and evil. Tolkein argues that the monsters are necessary for the advancement of the story by their strategic placement in the development of Beowulf as a man. Tolkein says "the placing of the dragon is inevitable: a man can but die on his death-day."