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Good Vs Evil Vs Beowulf

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Beowulf is an Old English epic poem about a Geat hero by the name of Beowulf who comes to rescue King Hrothgar of the Danes, whose mead hall called Heorot has been under attack by a monster known as Grendel. This story does an excellent job displaying the theme of good and evil, which has consistently been discussed throughout time. Since this epic poem has been released, many others have come out doing their best to recapture the strong message, for example, Beowulf (translated by Burton Raffel) and Beowulf (2007 film). Despite these two depictions both containing the theme of good and evil, there are many different strengths and weakness between how they are told. (thesis)

The first noticeable difference in the two adaptations as they …show more content…

In the poem, it’s many years after the slaying of Grendel, and Beowulf is an old man, still the king of Geatland. In the Geatland, a man steals treasure from a mound that has a dragon protecting the jewels. This angries the dragon, and it then comes to attack the land of the Geats. Being the king and sworn protector of the land, it is Beowulf’s duty to go fight the dragon. Beowulf is successful in killing the dragon, but however suffers a poisonous bite to the neck. Beowulf soon passes away after the battle due to this bite. This takes place in the text where it says “The old man's mouth was silent, spoke No more, had said as much as it could; He would sleep in the fire, soon. His soul Left his flesh, flew to glory” (Raffel) 825-828) In the film, Beowulf is battling against the same dragon, but dies due to a different cause. Mid-duel, Beowulf ends up tied up in a chain dangling. Using his cunning fighting technique, Beowulf stabs a red area on the dragon’s chest opens up to it’s throat and exposes the dragon’s heart wide open. Beowulf’s next move is to stab the dragon’s heat with his sword however, is unable to reach it. Running out of options and time, Beowulf takes his sword and slashes off part of his arm so that his reach can extend further out. He ends up dropping his sword, but thanks to the cutting of his arm from his shoulder, his reach extending a few more inches and he grabs the heart, and aggressively and heroically rips it out. The dragon then falls off a bridge, to it’s death, dragging Beowulf with it, and Beowulf dies. This cause of death is portrayed differently in the two versions of the

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