Beowulf Comparison

There are two sides to every story. The events may be the same, but the tone in which the story is told shapes the reader’s understanding of the events. This idea is never more evident than through the disparity between Burton Raffel’s translation of Beowulf and John Gardner’s Grendel. Both novels are based on the idea of Beowulf killing Grendel. However, the two different points of view telling the story create vastly different novels. Beowulf highlights the heroic and positive world in which Beowulf lives. Whereas Grendel elucidates on the miserable life that Grendel is circumscribed to. The consistent variance in tone skews the events in two completely different directions. The tone between Beowulf and Grendel differ in

The plot is where the book and the movie totally differ, they have almost nothing in common. A big plot twist in the movie is when Beowulf goes to kill Grendel’s mother; first of all he did not end up killing her and lies about it. Also in the movie, it shows that Grendel’s mother is just angry about Beowulf killing her son, so she makes him stay and give her a new son by making love to her. Another big plot twist is when Hrothgar kills himself and Beowulf does not return back to his kingdom, and becomes King of Dane Land. But in the book Hrothgar lives and stays king of his land and Wiglaf takes the throne after Beowulf dies; “Take what I leave, Wiglaf, lead my people, help them; my time is

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

The overall theme/message is also different from the book to the movie. For example in the book the book the theme is good vs. evil, Beowulf being good and Grendel being. This however is not the case in the movie, the theme in the movie is more like don’t cheat on your spouse and don’t lie to the people you rule or else it will come back to haunt you. This quite the difference, but I believe the writers of the movie did this to make a point or to send a message to the people watching

The poem Beowulf, written by an unknown Anglo-Saxon poet and the movie script, written by Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary. The story is about a Man named Beowulf, who becomes a hero to his town Heorot, by defeating a monster named Grendel. He is later named King of Geats, because of his braveness and loyalty to his people. After about fifty years of ruling, a dragon threatens the town’s people. Beowulf and his servant, Wiglaf, set off to defeat this dragon. While he did succeed to kill it, sadly Beowulf dies in the process. In the poem versus the movie, Beowulf shows different character traits throughout the story. Heroism, loyalty, and bravery all differ from the poem to the movie. The audience will perceive Beowulf as a completely different person if only looking at one of the two pieces.

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

The Old-English epic poem of Beowulf, officially written down somewhere around the year 1066 by the Beowulf poet, is one where you are persistently kept of the edge of your seat due to its superior use of vivid phrases and imagery. In the Anglo-Saxon period in which the story takes place bravery, heroic deeds, and loyalty to one another is paramount. Beowulf, a tenacious scandinavian warrior, is the savior of a neighboring kingdom due to his aptness to slay the treacherous monsters such as the nefarious Grendel and his mother. A truly remarkable feat is how the words and actions of this poem are put to life in the movie. Though remarkable, the cinema didn’t exactly correlate with the poem. In fact the integrity of the poem almost seems diminished

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 was originally written in song form but was then translated and put into a poem, while Grendel is written as a story. Despite these large differences, the purpose is the same, it speaks of the inherent nature of people, and monsters when looking at the two main characters. Beowulf is a picture perfect hero, that is represented in almost all forms of literature. He is a hero, inherently good, fighting for liberty and family honor. He is introduced and is mentioned by his father’s name, as “Beowulf, Ecgtheow’s son” (Heaney 37), many times throughout the book.

this makes it sound as if she is a terrible and vicious monster with sharp claws. While in the movie, she is shown to be like a siren, beautiful and seductive. Beowulf killed Grendel’s mother in the book by using the sword he found in her lair which had been forged by giants, swinging it so it “caught her in the neck and cut it through, broken bones and all.” (1566-1567) but the movie had a completely different take on this scene. Beowulf goes to Grendel’s mother’s lair but when she shows herself to him, she looks human except for her hair that appears to also serve as a tail and instead of having on clothes, she is just covered in gold with the rest of her skin exposed.

The film Beowulf had its similarities and differences to the Poem. To begin with, Grendel’s appearance was unexpected in the film. The epic made him out to be a massive monster that could grab multiple men in one hand, but in the film he was much smaller than expected. Grendel looked more of a human than a monster, being able to talk and function just as a human. The poem describes Beowulf ripping of Grendel's arm with his bare hands, although his arm was pulled off with a door and chain in the film.

The poem and movie had many key differences but also had a plethora of subtle changes that people probably didn't notice. One major difference I noticed was that the queen played a bit more of an important role in the movie, If I can recall correctly she spoke maybe a few words and that was it. The King Hrothgar also might have been relatively the same age in the movie than he was in the poem, the characters changed a lot in the movie than they were in the poem such as beowulf being interested in the queen and him submission to grendel's mother, grendel's mother was not a monster that beowulf ended up fighting which was a major surprise to those who were familiar with the poem. The majority of grendel's encounters were during the night which wasn't a difference however they were not quite or while the men were asleep they were during the party.

Seamus Heaney’s new verse translation and Robert Zemecki’s movie adaptation portray this clash in differing ways, and a large cause is Grendel’s physical appearance. Heaney’s depiction of Grendel as a monster far removed from humanity serves to portray the

Beowulf is known for displaying the importance of male heroism via Beowulf, but what about the significance of the women in the poem? The significance of women in Beowulf is overshadowed by the great heroism of the character Beowulf, but the women each have a reason for participating in the epic. The ideal woman was someone who was a noble, a mistress and loyal. An ideal woman is described in Maxim I: “at mead drinking she must at all times and places approach the protector of princes first, in front of the companions, quickly pass the first cup to her lord’s hand”. The significance of women in Beuwolf is a minor detail in the epic, but proves to be vital to Beuwolf. The epic of "Beowulf" illustrates three major roles for the women in the society: the hostess, the peacemaker, and the monster. Five women in Beowulf play the major roles throughout the epic: Wealhtheow, Freawaru, Thyrth, Grendel's Mother, and Hildeburh. These women entertain, bring peace, and contradict societal expectations of the female gender, either directly or indirectly.

Behavior of a hero similarities and differences between the movie and the poem, is that the similarities are. In the movie/poem Beowulf . Beowulf himself cut’s Grendel’s arm off when grendel came storming in the mead hall and kept the arm for glory. Another similarity is that Beowulf