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rhile
rhile
Student
High School - 9th Grade

What's the difference between Beowulf the movie, and the poem?

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Posted by rhile on Tuesday June 23, 2009 at 12:09 AM and tagged with beowulf, characters, movie, scenes, themes.

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  1. amy-lepore Teacher
    High School - 12th Grade

    There are many differences in the movie, Beowulf, and the original poem.

    For one, Hrothgar was not the father of Grendel.  There is never any mention of either Hrothgar or Beowulf ever being romantically involved or enticed to become the fathers of Grendel or the dragon which appear as the major threats in the poem.

    Also, Grendel's mother is never described as covered in gold and looking like Angelina Jolie, either.  She and her son live in a horrid place, and they are both descended of Cain--the first murderer on earth.  Since this is an Anglo-Saxon piece of literature, it is imperative that you understand that loyalty and valor are huge ideals of the society which are expected to be kept.  Murdering someone is bad enough, but to murder a member of your own family...a brother...is considered one of the greatest sins you could commit.  This is one reason given for the misery that Grendel and his mother suffer...their ancestor Cain murdered his brother Abel.  For this crime, all the family is punished.

    Hrothgar is not portrayed as a man who has many lovers aside from his wife.  For that matter, neither is Beowulf when he becomes King.  Both men are respected and considered honorable men who are faithful to their wives.  Perhaps this was not true for real-life Kings, but in the poem both men are portrayed as faithful and loyal--not only to their wives, but also to the men who have pledged their lives to these Kings.

    Beowulf also does not stay in Hrothgar's town and marry his queen.  Once Beowulf has fulfilled his duty to Hrothgar (because the King had helped Beowulf's father in his time of need and Beowulf feels a sense of duty to come to Hrothgar's aide as a form of repayment) by killing both Grendel and Grendel's mother, Beowulf returns home where he lives to a ripe old age and becomes King himself.  It is here that he fights the dragon creature...not at Hrothgar's castle.

    The movie is enjoyable, but as with every film ever made of a great piece of literature, the directors take enormous leaps in creative license and ruin it for those of us who have actually read the original works.  Hope this helps!  Good Luck!

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/beowulf

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    Posted by amy-lepore on Tuesday June 23, 2009 at 5:19 AM