Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics writing in "The New Yorker", calls it "a paper that many people regard as not just the finest essay on the poem but one of the finest essays on English literature." She adds that "Tolkien preferred the monsters to the critics." Regina Weinreich, reviewing "The Monsters and the Critics: And Other Essays" in "The New York Times", wrote that the title essay "revolutionized the study of the early English poem "Beowulf," in which a young hero crushes a human-handed monster called Grendel. Against the scorn of critics, Tolkien defends the centrality and seriousness of literary monsters, declaring his own belief
Skjöldunga saga Skjöldunga saga The Skjöldunga saga (or, in another standardised Old Norse spelling, "Skjǫldunga saga") was an Old Norse Legendary saga. Dating from c. 1180 – 1200, the saga was lost in its original form. The saga focused on the Danish dynasty of Scylding (Old Norse "Skjöldung", plural "Skjöldungar"), the same semi-legendary dynasty featured in the Old English poem "Beowulf". The fragmentary Icelandic text known as "Sögubrot af nokkrum fornkonungum" is believed to be based on the "Skjöldunga saga", perhaps deriving from a late version of that work. Arngrímur Jónsson paraphrased parts of it into Latin, and parts of it are