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The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays

j.r.r. tolkien christopher tolkien

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The seven 'essays' by J.R.R. Tolkien assembled in this new paperback edition were with one exception delivered as general lectures on particular occasions; and while they mostly arose out of Tolkien's work in medieval literature, they are accessible to all. Two of them are concerned with Beowulf, including the well-known lecture whose title is taken for this book, and one with Sit Gawain and the Green Knight, given in the University of Glasgow in 1953.

Also included in this volume is the lecture English and Welsh; the Valedictory Address to the University of Oxford in 1959; and a paper on Invented Languages delivered in 1931, with exemplification from poems in the Elvish tongues. Most famous of all is On Fairy-Stories, a discussion of the nature of fairy-tales and fantasy, which gives insight into Tolkien's approach to the whole genre.

The pieces in this collection cover a period of nearly thirty years, beginning six years before the publication of The Hobbit, with a unique 'academic' lecture on his invention (calling it A Secret Vice) and concluding with his farewell to professorship, five years after the publication of The Lord of the Rings

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,1983
Literary awards
mythopoeic scholarship award, 

This edition

Format
256 pages, Paperback
Published
May 2, 2006 by HarperCollins
ISBN
9780261102637
ASIN
026110263X
Language
English

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About the author

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j.r.r. tolkien

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John Ronald Reuel Tolkien: writer, artist, scholar, linguist. Known to millions around the world as the author of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien spent most of his life teaching at the University of Oxford where he was a distinguished academic in the fields of Old and Middle English and Old Norse. His creativity, confined to his spare time, found its outlet in fantasy works, stories for children, poetry, illustration and invented languages and alphabets.

Tolkien's most popular works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are set in Middle-earth, an imagined world with strangely familiar settings inhabited by ancient and extraordinary peoples. Through this secondary world Tolkien writes perceptively of universal human concerns – love and loss, courage and betrayal, humility and pride – giving his books a wide and enduring appeal.

Tolkien was an accomplished amateur artist who painted for pleasure and relaxation. He excelled at landscapes and often drew inspiration from his own stories. He illustrated many scenes from The Silmarillion, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, sometimes drawing or painting as he was writing in order to visualize the imagined scene more clearly.

Tolkien was a professor at the Universities of Leeds and Oxford for almost forty years, teaching Old and Middle English, as well as Old Norse and Gothic. His illuminating lectures on works such as the Old English epic poem, Beowulf, illustrate his deep knowledge of ancient languages and at the same time provide new insights into peoples and legends from a remote past.

Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, in 1892 to English parents. He came to England aged three and was brought up in and around Birmingham. He graduated from the University of Oxford in 1915 and saw active service in France during the First World War before being invalided home. After the war he pursued an academic career teaching Old and Middle English. Alongside his professional work, he invented his own languages and began to create what he called a mythology for England; it was this ‘legendarium' that he would work on throughout his life. But his literary work did not start and end with Middle-earth, he also wrote poetry, children's stories and fairy tales for adults. He died in 1973 and is buried in Oxford where he spent most of his adult life.

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Rating(3.9 / 5.0, 100 votes)
5 stars
31(31%)
4 stars
27(27%)
3 stars
42(42%)
2 stars
0(0%)
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NarutoxXSasuke
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Recommended only for readers interested in the topics described in the goodreads blurb above. I was interested only in the two essays on Beowulf and one on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, five stars.

Tolkien is reportedly the scholar who first acclaimed the exceptional literary merit of Beowulf, which had until then not received the attention and respect it deserves. The first essay closely examines the circumstances of its authorship and fully justifies its literary value.

Tolkien's analysis of Sir Gawain is most perceptive. The other essays are for Brits, principally the Welsh ones.

archiv.org has this book for free.

If you haven't read Beowulf, then try Seamus Heaney's enjoyable translation, also free.
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NKNIGHT
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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It is difficult to rate this book on a five-star scale. It is simply a collection of 7 essays by Tolkien with a short foreword written by his son. Each essay could really have its own rating, although I will not be doing that since I think each essay has its own appeal to certain readers. I gave the overall book 4 stars because the essays are well written for the topics they are touching on, but are not entirely accessible to a modern day casual reader without some added context that this publication does not provide.

Christopher Tolkien states in the foreword, "With one exception, all the 'essays' by J.R.R. Tolkien collected together in this book were in fact lectures, delivered on special occasions; and while all were on specific topics, literary or linguistic, the whole audience on these occasions could in no case (save perhaps that of the Valedictory Address) be presumed to have more than a general knowledge of or interest in the subject" (pg. 1). What I took away from this opening statement was that I had hope that I could really understand much of the material in these essays! I consider myself to have a "general knowledge of" and "interest in the subject." Therefore, am I not the intended audience?

Well, if I was the intended audience, then I'm not sure Tolkien did a good job at catering to me. He frequenctly references other sources that I am completely unfamiliar with and I just get lost on the point he is trying to make. His language and style would also lose a modern day first-time reader. So, the truth is, I am not the intended audience that Tolkien was lecturing for. Believe it or not, Tolkien did not write this for a 2024 casual reader!

Obviously the essays are very well written and I never actually expected to follow them easily despite what the foreword said. All I am trying to say is that most readers with a "general knowledge" and "interest in the subject" will require at least a second read-through of these essays before fully comprehending Tolkien's points. But once you do, you get to see the world through his eyes and better understand and appreciate his mastery of language and story-telling and see why he is indeed one of the greatest.
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Nrew
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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I’m giving no rating for this book since I’ve only read a few of the essays from it.

I did not read the essays related to Beowulf and Sir Gawain as I have not read those stories. I started the first essay on Beowulf and was a little lost, so I didn’t even bother finishing it or starting the other essays on those subjects.

I did, however, read ‘On Fairy Stories’, ‘A Secret Vice’, and the valedictory address.

I won’t go into a detailed review; some of these were over my head in places, to be frank, although there were really good parts in each.

‘OFS’ is a must-read anyone wishing to dive a little more into Tolkien’s thoughts on writing and ‘fantasy’.

‘ASV’ is incredibly interesting and really obscure and niche for one who doesn’t go in for studying languages. I can’t imagine there are many people who have written on the topic of ‘invented languages’, and this one is by a person that many people would probably consider to be the epitome of this study. Fascinating.

The valedictory address was a little out of my league and I was confused through a lot of it, not really being familiar with the mid-twentieth-century Oxford culture, nor familiar with the many references Tolkien makes throughout. There are some interesting nuggets in there, however.

I look forward to revisiting this volume after reading the stories I’m currently unfamiliar with (but Tolkien clearly loved), and reading some supplementary work on the other essays by people who are really knowledgeable of these things. (Here I’m thinking of people like The Tolkien Professor.)

No review; no rating; but I’m glad I own this.
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TeKSMeLater
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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It's intense, and not a read for everyone.
Essendo una serie di conferenze tenute da Tolkien durante la sua carriera di professore, e successivamente adattate da suo figlio (e revisore ufficiale) Christopher, non scorre certo come un romanzo; contiene però una serie di spunti molto interessanti sui romanzi medievali, la lingua, e il "fantastico" in letteratura - temi che a me appassionano molto, ma non sono necessariamente popolari. Hence, 3 stars, in terms of accessibility and entertainment; 500+ stars for knowledge and communication.
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ST4RRRRRR
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Una raccolta di saggi e interventi del professore che ci fa addentrare non solo nella mente e negli studi svolti su temi a lui estremamente cari (Beowulf e Galvano su tutti), ma anche sull'apparato culturale e letterario sul quale costruisce tutto l'universo che viene coinvolto nella sua ineguagliabile produzione. Se in Beowulf e Galvano l'intento è quello di analizzare e (soprattutto) rendere giustizia a due capolavori della letteratura medievale Europea, in Sulle Fiabe è il Faerie a divenire il fulcro dell'invettiva di Tolkien, sempre in contrasto con letterati, critici o presunti tali. In Inglese e Gallese omaggia il gaelico come lingua che è stata pietra miliare per la costruzione delle lingue di Arda, mentre nel Vizio Segreto (quello che più mi è piaciuto per l'intimità del tema) racconta del suo amore per la linguistica da un punto di vista puramente estetico, menzionando i suoi tentativi di gioventù di creare nuovi linguaggi.
Ci sono molti spunti per comprendere ancora più a fondo il background del Professore, il suo amore per le lingue, la fiaba e la letteratura in generale, punti fermi per i capolavori che ha saputo creare
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kwyang
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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I enjoyed this immensely. I probably enjoyed it much more than I should have as I have no background in philology and no knowledge of ancient European languages. Tolkien is an incredible writer, and it's only enhanced when he writes about something he is passionate about. His passion and personality really come out in these essays.
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QuietDiscourse
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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A tratti impegnativi eh, non mi sono applicata molto per seguire tutte le varianti di gallese e anglosassone menzionate perché sennò stavo ancora là. PERÒ comunque interessanti per capire un po' di più sulla persona, direi forse un po' rigida per i miei gusti ma con dei buoni valori e squisitamente sassy, oltre che autistic vibes ma questo già lo sapevamo
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