Beowulf Comparison Essay

Both of the pieces of literature, Grendel and Beowulf, contain the same story; it is just told from different viewpoints. Beowulf is an epic oratorical poem depicting the heroic Beowulf defeating the hideous creature that haunts the halls of Herot. Grendel, however, allows the reader to be able to experience the story from Grendel’s point of view. Though the books depict the same creature who possesses the same qualities, within Grendel, he is given more human characteristics and this makes the reader feel as though they are reading about a different being.

Beowulf is about a warrior who fights a huge monster to show his loyalty to a king that was not even his. It was written in the Anglo-Saxon time period and this greatly affects the way the story is written. Grendel is written from the monster's point of view and this was written many years later.

The plot of the epic poem Beowulf and the film The 13th Warrior differ greatly from each other. In Beowulf the main character, Beowulf sets sail to the Danes land in order to defeat a monster named Grendel. In the film, the character that represents Beowulf is named Buliwyf, setting out to defeat a race called the Wendols. Also in the poem, Beowulf defeats Grendel in his first attack, however in the 13th Warrior Buliwyf does not defeat all of the Wendols on the first attack. Instead, the Wendols are

In the movie and book Beowulf, Beowulf represents a hero. Beowulf is like our modern day heroes, firefighters, policemen, military men, doctors and EMT’s. All of these men do the same thing as Beowulf did in the movie. The fight the villains and protect the innocent. Beowulf had super strength to help him defeat the villains and protect the innocent. "I have heard moreover that the monster scorns in his reckless way to use weapons; therefore, to heighten Hygelac 's fame and gladden his heart, I hereby renounce sword and the shelter of the broad shield, the heavy war-board: hand-to-hand is how it will be, a life-and-death fight with the fiend." (433-440) Although Grendel was a worthy opponent, he was still no match for Beowulf’s strength to kill the unbeatable monster.

Movies and books are never the exact same, sometimes even the whole plot is changed around. In the book Beowulf the plot, characters, and setting are a lot different than they are when the movie was created. If a person watched the movie before they read the book, it may be totally confusing to read. In the book, Beowulf shows up and plans to fight with his men, then leaves to go back to his own kingdom. In the movie Beowulf, Beowulf ends up staying and becoming king of Dane Land.

The plot of the story differs in the poem and film. The main plot has the same general idea, yet in a different sequence. In the book the main character, Beowulf sets sail to the Danes land to conquer a monster named Grendel. Also in the book Beowulf has three agons. In the movie, the character that represents Beowulf, is Buliwuf, and he goes out to conquer a race which is Wendols. In the text Beowolf defeats Grendel. Buliwyf actually defeats the Wendols on the second attack not the first, where they kill the ‘Mother.’ In both the film and poem the characters have a dragon that they must defeat which is also known as a ‘fire

Beowulf is an old Anglo-Saxon story of a terrifying monster Grendel, Grendel travels to the Danes mead hall Heorot and while the danes expect it least he attacks killing countless men purely for the joys of doing so. Hrothgar king of the Danes calls for a warrior to fight this unruly beast. After 12 long years of grendel attacking Hrothgar's calls are answered and the great warrior Beowulf comes to kill Grendel. Beowulf travels to the land of the Danes from across the seas and in the first night he kills Grendel. Sadly for Beowulf Grendel has a mother that now seeks revenge for her son's death and Beowulf is asked to kill Grendel’s mother as well. Beowulf goes to where Grendel’s mother is staying and battled her to the death , Beowulf wins

In the book as well as the movie Beowulf brings fourteen men to the land of the Danes and defeats Grendel. The first main difference is that in the book Grendel’s mother only kills one Dane, Aeschere. In the movie Grendel’s mother slays all of Beowulf’s men besides Wiglaf. At this time in the book Wiglaf is not present with Beowulf and his men, but only at the final battle against the dragon. In both the book and the movie Beowulf detaches Grendel’s arm and his mother returns to the hall for revenge. In the book Beowulf immediately follows Grendel’s mother to the underwater lair, but contrastingly in the movie Beowulf would have no knowledge of Grendel’s mother unless Hrothgar would not have told him. Beowulf kills Grendel’s mother and returns to Geatland to rule in the book, however in the movie Beowulf lies about killing Grendel’s mother and stays to rule in Denmark. Just as Beowulf brought Grendel’s head back in the book, he also did so in the movie. The book does not mention that Hrothgar was the son of Grendel or that Beowulf was the father of the dragon. In the book as well as the movie Beowulf defeats the dragon and dies as the hero of the epic even though he did it in a different way at a different place. The concluding difference includes Beowulf’s funeral. The book displays his funeral as a burial near the coast of the sea, but conversely in the movie his body is put on a burning ship sent out into the

The battle between Beowulf and Grendel's mother has its similarities and differences as well. Throughout the movie, clues are given about Grendel’s mother when encountering mysterious hands breaching the water while

The first example of the similarities and differences between the poem and the movie is the representation of religion. For example, both the movie and the poem of Beowulf included Christianity and Paganism. However, in the movie it was more about the Pagan religion, trying to make Christianity look bad. As an example, in one scenes of the movie, Beowulf says the Christianity killed the time of all heros. On the other hand, in the Beowulf poem, Beowulf is compared to the gods of Christianity. For example, in the passage The Battle With Grendel the scop describes “... Now he discovered- once the afflictor of

Despite Grendel being written in both novels the, he is quite a different character. Their perspectives do share some similarities but also depict some differences between them. Grendel is depicted as a savage monster in Beowulf, while the book likes to show the deeper meaning behind the monster and why he took the actions he did. It truly shows the difference between self-perception, in comparison to the perception of

There are many differences between the two such as setting, characters, and the organization of the storyline. In the book they start out at in Danish kingdom and switch the Gaet’s kingdom with the return of Beowulf. But in the movie the setting is always in the Danish kingdom. The stories are similar because they both start out at Herot hall in the Danish kingdom. As far as characters go Wiglaf, Beowulf, and Hrothgar all have the same character roles in both the storylines. But in the movie there is not a character named Aschere like in the book. Instead Unferth’s role as a Gaet in the book is opposite for the movie. Grendel was killed the same way when Beowulf tears his arm off. For example the mom wasn’t killed in the movie and she became Beowulf’s lover. In the movie Hrothgar is Grendel’s dad but not in the book. In the book Wiglaf deals the final blow to the dragon with his sword but in the movie Beowulf rips its heart out. In both the book and movie Beowulf is showered with treasure and honor from the grateful Danes. Also he is buried or sent away with his treasure in both of the storylines. Unferth doubts Beowulf’s ability to fight the monster but ends up giving him his sword as a token of gratitude in both of the stories. In the movie Hrothgar kills himself but we don’t know how he dies in the book. But the man key difference is Beowulf being the king of the Danes and never returning to rule his fellow

These two versions of the same story are told from two different perspectives, Grendel’s (the monster) and Beowulf’s (the epic hero), the story told in Beowulf’s favor insinuates that Grendel is a terrible monster with no soul, whose whole life is dedicated to killing anything and everything in his sight. However, in Grendel, we see a completely different side of Grendel that isn’t over shadowed by the hatred that the people have on Grendel. In the book, Grendel, we learn about Grendel, and how he feels about himself. We are taken on a journey through the last twelve months of Grendel’s life and what lead up to his, as some would have described it in the

Both the epic poem Beowulf and the novel Grendel depict the same storyline, but from different point of views. Grendel’s personality tends to be much more evil than he himself depicts in the novel. Since Grendel is the narrator of the novel, the audience only gets to know what the story is like from his point of view, which he stretches the truth on numerous occasions. But, in Beowulf, the poem has a narrator and is in the third person omniscient, this means the audience knows how all the characters and feeling, thinking, or saying. Also, the theme nature vs. nurture appears a lot in Grendel which means his viewpoints on certain things are either

Beowulf is one hell of an adventure. Slaying demons and dragons and even evil dark queens. But the movie compared to the epic is very different. In the movie, instead of Grendel attacking at night, he attacked while people had been awake just to add more adventure in the movie, but also, Beowulf is not entirely honest in the movie like he is in the epic. An example of this shows when he is slaying Grendel, he takes off all of his armor and clothes to give this naked, weaponless demon a fighting chance. Yes, Beowulf put up an intense fight with his demon to kill him, but Beowulf ended up killing him with the door of the room and taking the demon’s arm off with it. This is considered using a weapon, but making Beowulf kill the demon with the door gave him a chance to add more of the adventure to the story when he gives his “I am Beowulf” speech to the demon while the demon’s arm is in the door, defenseless. Also, in the movie they add pathos to the story line by showing after Beowulf left the island to go back to Geatsland, Hrothgar kills himself instead of just