The Monsters and the Critics

The Monsters and the Critics, a collection of J. R. R. Tolkien's scholarly linguistic essays published posthumously in 1983. The essays are Beowulf, the Monsters and the Critics, English and Welsh, On Fairy-Stories, On Translating Beowulf, A Secret Vice, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

The Beowulf, the Monsters and the Critics looks at Beowulf, while On Translating Beowulf looks at translating Anglo-Saxon language. On Fairy-Stories is a defence of the fantasy genre. A Secret Vice talks about creating imaginary languages, giving background to Tolkien's Quenya and Sindarin. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a study of the medieval poem of the same name, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. English and Welsh was Tolkien's valedictory address to the University of Oxford, explaining the origin of the word "Welsh".