If you study Beowulf in academia (as I once did), you will encounter Tolkien in the form of a 1936 lecture-turned-essay called "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics." Tolkien fans sometimes know it too, as its importance in Beowulf scholarship means it is more readily available than a lot of Tolkien's academic work, but lacking an immediate connection to the legendarium—such as found in his other lecture-turned-essay "On Fairy-stories"—it isn't engaged with in fandom as regularly as "On Fairy-stories" is. In the world of Beowulf scholarship, "Monsters and the Critics" is still widely considered to be the most important scholarship on Beowulf, as it is credited with producing a sea change in how scholars read and engaged with the poem.

In his final essay in his series on "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics," Simon J. Cook challenges the idea that "Monsters and the Critics" is not as deeply entwined with the Ardaverse. In June 2023, Simon first approached the SWG about hosting this series about a new reading of "Monsters and the Critics" as part of our A Sense of History column. Since then, he has produced monthly columns, looking at the tower allegory in the essay from a variety of angles, often tying his revelations back to the legendarium in new and intriguing ways. This final essay pans out to take in the whole picture, concluding with a reading of the analogy that is new and fresh from how it has been interpreted both by Tolkien and Beowulf scholars in the past. By using Tolkien's allegories of the tower and the rock garden, Simon creates a metaphorical map for how the various elements of both Beowulf and the legendarium are both physically and symbolically situated.

You can read Simon's final essay in this series, "Doom and Ascent: The Argument of ‘Beowulf: the Monsters and the Critics’," here.

Intially, due to a variety of piling-up small circumstances, I did not think that Simon's essay would be ready for this edition of the newsletter. (In fact, if the newsletter seems a bit later arriving than usual, it is, so that I could get Simon's essay into it in time!) This edition was going to simply mention that we've opened up the call for presenters for meta, research, and scholarship for Mereth Aderthad 2025.

But I find that Simon's essay (a work of scholarship that challenges "established wisdom" and is published on a website with a predominantly fannish purpose) is the perfect illustration of what we are hoping to achieve with the Mereth Aderthad, in honor of twenty years of the SWG's existence.

The core concept of Mereth Aderthad is to hold a day-long hybrid event that engages with both scholarly and creative works about Tolkien's legendarium, ideally in conversation with each other. We the organizers hope that this illustrates what the SWG has evolved to become: predominantly a fanworks website and community but one that also engages significantly with meta, research, and scholarship about the legendarium.

Our hope is that this doesn't result in scholars and academics on one side of the room, presenting their work, and fans on the other, presenting theirs. There is significant overlap, and with the call for presenters released, we hope to convince at least a few people who don't think of themselves as scholars that their meta and research matters enough to share with others at this event. (And maybe we can convince a few from the scholarly side to try their hands at fanworks!)

Ultimately, a core belief that drives the work we do on the SWG is the value of the work that fans do about the legendarium. That is stories and art and every type of fanwork imaginable, but it is also the considerable amount of research and thinking about the legendarium that fans do: in preparing to create fanworks, in conversing with each other, and as meta fanworks.

Because I engage with both the Tolkien fandom and the Tolkien scholarly community, I know that fans bring perspectives that academics often don't. And, as Simon's series illustrates, fans and fandom spaces can push against established wisdom in a way that is more dangerous for someone whose meta is also how they keep a roof over their head.

Many of you have done incredible research and meta work and have important things to say. In the months to come, we will hold events and workshops to support fans who want to present their meta and research work, and I hope you will consider submitting a proposal if you create these kinds of fanworks! The full call for presenters for meta, research, and scholarship can be found here.