As new book and dustjacket. First edition. "This study focuses on many minor works by Tolkien in tracing the development of his English mythology. It begins with a reading of his famous Beowulf essay as a work of art in its own right, and relates this essay to his other critical studies, editions, and translations of medieval works and to his mock-critical prefaces, as in Farmer Giles of Ham. This comparison reveals that for Tolkien the critic himself may be a monster like Beowulf's dragon against whom the artist must do battle."