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Compare and contrast between books and movies
Narrative of Beowulf
.myth, legend and fantasy in beowulf
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The movie stuck to the main story of Beowulf, but it still had many differences. The movie brought the poem to reality with its own twist on the story of Beowulf. From the appearance of Hrothgar and Grendel’s mom, to the journey of the dragon. There are many differences and similarities locked into one Legend.
The movie kept to the origin of how Beowulf came to help king Hrothgar. He came to defeat Grendel and pay his wergild. Grendel was also a monster who killed and incapacitated people in the hall. They both had Grendel lose an arm in the fight, but they had him lose it in different ways. They both had journey's to fight Grendel’s mom and the dragon, but both of the tales had different outcomes. Nevertheless Beowulf still became king in the two stories, it was just a matter of where he ruled, that made the
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The journey to her layer in the movie was not as difficult and enduring as the poem made it out to be. There was no fight with Grendel’s mom, because she was able to get Beowulf to hook up with her. In the movie she wasn’t so much of a sea monster because she flew to the hall and killed many people, which never happened in the poem. In the movie Grendel’s mom is unscathed and not killed and lives on past Beowulf. Furthermore she gave Beowulf one thing he never had in the poem, a son.
The poem had no son of Beowulf in it, but the movie provided him one. Years after Beowulf hooked up with Grendel’s mom, his son appeared as a dragon shape shifter. Beowulf’s final battle came when he fought his son, tearing out his heart and eventually killing both of them. The poem had an unknown dragon being slayed, and Beowulf living on as an insuperable king.
The movie added a twist to give excitement to the viewers, to make Beowulf a man of flaws. The poem had him seem as a hero, a man who did no wrong. No matter what story is told, Beowulf will always remain a
Many differences occur in the poem and movie. The difference in the heroes names becomes obvious. In the poem the heroes name is Beowulf. In the movie, Boulvine is the hero’s name. Another difference occurs in the monsters. In the poem the head monsters name is Grendle. In the movie though, the monster is called the leader of the Ven. Also, in the poem, Grendle is just one person. In the movies the Ven consist of a group of humans that act like animals.
The story begins with Grendel taking the lives of countless innocent men. It seems to all that there is no one who can face this great monster who lives down in the swamp. The king, Hrothgar, becomes concerned for the health of his country and seeks out help from someone of great strength. In hearing this, Beowulf sees it as an opportunity to increase his popularity and fame. Upon arrival, he is anxious to come face to face with the great beast. In addition, he declares that he will fight Grendel without any weapons to prove who is truly the strongest. After his victory, Beowulf gets his fame and becomes king of another land for fifty years.
Beowulf is a poem about strength and courage. This is illustrated in the eighth section of the story called “Beowulf and the Dragon.” A slave, a hero and a dragon play a big role in this section. The characters are well developed, as is the setup for the conclusion of the poem.
After Beowulf’s arrival in Herot, King Hrothgar recalls a time when Beowulf’s father also entered the land of the South-Danes. However, Beowulf’s father, Ecgtheow, arrived under much different circumstances. Ecgtheow was running from a dispute and Hrothgar gave him refuge and healed the feud, indebting Ecgtheow to the gracious King Hrothgar. Beowulf most likely had heard this story from his father, giving him knowledge of the South-Danes and his family’s debt. Thus, it is no coincidence Beowulf chooses to cross treacherous seas, pursuing a vile creature by the name of Grendel. Beowulf sees Grendel as an opportunity to repay a family debt. The fight against Grendel causes Beowulf to suffer the pain of battle, but ultimately Beowulf defeats the beast, repaying his father’s debt. Beowulf’s repayment of his father’s debt displays the power of his word and his growing
Knowing that the sword is powerful enough to cut the skin of Grendel’s mother, Beowulf slays her and brings the sword and the head of the mother to Hrothgar, and he rewards Beowulf with more gifts and another feast. Once Beowulf returns home, he then tells his lord about his adventures and gives him all of the rewards that he received from Hrothgar for successfully defeating Grendel and his mother. His lord, then gave him rewards such as a new golden sword that belonged to Beowulf's father and grandfather, and some land and houses. In addition, Beowulf was to have the crown after the death of his lord and the lord’s son. Fifty years after Beowulf first became king, in Geatland a dragon was awakened by a slave who discovered the path to his tower by accident.
First of all, Beowulf came to help Hrothgar on his own free will. Hearing of the troubles that Hrothgar was having with a monster terrorizing Herot, his mead hall, Beowulf bravely offered his help not knowing what he was up against. When he arrived, Beowulf did not ask the king for either money nor fame. The only favor that he asked of Hrothgar was that he and his men were to fight the monster, Grendel. Coming away from one's homeland to help get rid of a man-eating monster and asking for nothing in return takes much courage and is an extremely brave deed.
In the beginning of the novel, Beowulf takes interest in the plight of Hrothgar, King of Denmark, and wants to help him fight Grendel. Grendel is a large monster that has been harassing members in the mead-hall of the Heorot. Beowulf owes Hrothgar a favor, due to the fact that Hrothgar saved his father in years past. Hrothgar is honored to have Beowulf attempt to fight the swamp monster, and decides to hold a feast in his name. When Grendel shows up to the feast, Beowulf illustrates his bravery by fighting Grendel without any armor. When Beowulf wins the battle by ripping Grendel’s arm off, everyone in the mead-hall praises Beowulf for his acts of courage. In this scene, Beowulf proves that he is a hero by fighting off a monster that everyone else was afraid of. This made him look
Fighting monsters is one of the things that both the poem and the movie have in common. “Heard how Grendel filled the nights with horror and quickly commanded a boat fitted out…,” in the poem it states that Grendel was the only monster Beowulf was fighting against and incompatibly in the movie there were more creatures whom they wanted to defeat. Another similarity is that in both they kill the mothers, Beowulf kills Grendel’s mother in Beowulf and in The 13th Warrior Buliwf kills the Wendol Warlord. On the other hand in The 13th Warrior they were building/ setting a wall that could sort of protect them from the monsters and could use it as shields, Beowulf didn’t do that.
Beowulf’s characteristics seen on screen are very different compared to Beowulf’s characteristics in the Anglo-Saxon poem. Beowulf in the film Beowulf
...le, the movie can offend some of the students, and it is possible that the movie could be ridiculing the actual poem. Because of these factors, it distorts the seniors’ perspectives of what Beowulf’s true story line is. Students are not likely to go and research what Beowulf is about due to how they view this movie, which, in turns, restrains their views on epic poetry now and maybe even in the future.
In the movie, this version of Beowulf does what the other Beowulf would have never done for a monster he just finished slaying. He builds a memorial in honor of Grendel. This shows Beowulf's remorse for killing him. An emotion the Beowulf from the epic didn't seem to have. Beowulf also shows mercy on Grendel's son when Beowulf decides not to kill him. This mercy is something that was not present at all in the epic's portrayal of Beowulf. If a deed would bring glory to the name of Beowulf, then he wouldn't hesitate to do it.
The main unexpected part in the film was Grendel being the son of Hrothgar, as the dragon was the son of Beowulf. It makes sense as to why that is, it explains why Grendel and the dragon exists and belong in the whole story of Beowulf. Grendel is the curse of Hrothgar, which explains why he is beyond relieved when Beowulf brings back the head of Grendel as proof of his death. The dragon is the sin of Beowulf, who comes when one of the people takes the horn form the swamp where she lives. In the attempt of killing the dragon, Beowulf puts himself in danger by severing his own arm to reach the heart. Both the dragon and Beowulf fall, and are on the shore when the dragon morphs into a gold humanlike form before being washed away into the sea.
The movie Beowulf is an old ancient story based on the Anglo Saxons and Monks based on their time.The movie and the text have a lot of differences between the movie and the text, people have to completely pay attention to the movie to understand each and every moment and to get the whole point across. Beowulf is supposed to be the great hero in this movie/story.
There are many similarities and differences between the movie "Beowulf and Grendel", to the poem. Major differences between the movie and the poem would be Grendel himself. In the poem, he is described as an evil monster born from two demons. In the movie, Grendel is actually human, but known as a troll to the warriors and Danes. The poem doesn’t give the background of Grendel or show how the Danes killed his father and the possible reason of his revenge, like in the movie. If the witch, Selma, was not included in the storyline of the movie, the audience would not have known key information that she was used to show from more flashbacks. The witch gives more of an idea about Grendel’s past life that could have been the possibility to reasons for his actions. Some major similarities are the battles. Both epics include the battles between Beowulf and Grendel, as well as Beowulf and Grendel’s mother. The end results are the same, leading to their death, but the journey and process to the two tales are different.
Beowulf’s first accomplishment as an epic hero was his battle with Grendel. Grendel was a huge beast, a descendent of Cain, who ruthlessly murdered innocent Danes because he felt pity for himself. Upon hearing of the Dane’s problem, Beowulf set off to help the Danish without having been called upon. Even though Beowulf had men backing him, He drew battle with Grendel alone and without armor or weapons. Yet, Beowulf emerged victorious with the arm of Grendel as his trophy. Beowulf then went on to kill Grendel’s vengeful mother and a huge fire-breathing dragon who thought it had been done wrong by the Geats. Alas, the killing of the dragon would be Beowulf’s last great battle for the dragon took Beowulf’s life in the struggle for his own.