A good way to solve swirling confusion, stews of meaning, obscurities, lack of confidence in understanding complexities is through disciplined analysis, or in other words, take it apart carefully, piece by piece, page by page. Note down what you see and order/re-order your notes to your satisfaction.

       Tolkien's day-job at Oxford was as a philologist. Brought onboard mainly by C.S. Lewis' efforts, these two formed the nucleus of the famous writers' group, the Inklings.  Tolkien's article (part of his day job), "The Monsters and the Critics" (beginning on page 103 in our book):

• addressing the group with background, 103-105
  • Secondary Sources over Primary
  • Theme stated, bottom 103
  • ancillary disciplines overshadowing; it was not considered a good poem
  • But what is it?  "poetry most powerful" 105
• listing what the poem "was not" & clearing the field, 105-111
  • Allegory of the Tower (beginning of the thesis)
  • Main bones of the thesis, top 107, & meaning of the Tower
• explaining why the critics went wrong, 111-114
  • "A dragon is no idle fancy." 113
  • The dragon personifies evil
  • Unitarian, 114
• moving forward, 115-118
  • for the eighth time, read the poem as a poem, then talk poetry
  • Who is Beowulf? a man/everyone & a tragedy collective 115
  • Who is the poet? treating deep things, not one who gibbers 115
  • What are the monsters? "adversaries of God" 116
  • Value to historians? for the "mood & thought of the period" 117
  • Tower/thesis re-stated: fusion of "old and new" 117
• where it is all going: specifics, 118-119
  • Thesis, 118 top or Tower re-stated again
  • poem is a "temporal tragedy" not an "allegorical homily" 119
  • monsters provide continuity from pagan to Christian worlds 119
  • Tragedy part of the Arbiter's plan: eternal victory if the soul wins 119
  • still pagan regret at death of self and acts remains 119
  • Nutshell: So we have a fine Christian poet still feeling a powerful pagan past but seeing forward into how tragedy becomes victory: put your finger into the dike, let it crash on your head, and rise above it all
• influences & contexts, yes & no, 120-122
• re-statement of what it is, 123
• more of what is it not, and what it is, 124-129
• conclusion, 129-130

Summing up the main points and dealing with them:

Fine, unified poem

The Monsters are________.

Beowulf and his actions

Meaning of the battles, of the poem