Beowulf Book And Movie Comparison

For over thousands of years, a poem has been told and has been passed on through generations of families. This poem is called Beowulf. Beowulf is an old Anglo Saxon poem that got told throughout many years by scops and would be accompanied by a lyre. It was very famous and would be told often at different places where there were a lot of people. This poem is one of the first to be told in the old-english language. However after various years of being told it finally got written down. But recently, there have been various movies that have been produced that tell the poem of Beowulf, the warrior who fought bravely against monsters. In the Beowulf movie and poem, there are similarities and differences in the comportment of a hero, gender roles, and in the role of religion, which reveal themes that reflect both Anglo Saxon and modern societies. The first example of the similarities and differences in the poem and the movie is the comportment or behavior of the hero. In both the poem and movie, the hero who is Beowulf, acts very
self absorbed and in both, he boasts about what he has done. In the poem, lines 153-159 he is boasting to the king Hrothgar about how he killed five great giants and hunted monsters killing them one by one. In the movie, the thanes, the king, Beowulf, and his people are assembled in the mead hall, Beowulf and Unferth began arguing and then Beowulf began to boast about how he killed various sea monsters with his bare hands and he describes how and when he beat those monsters. Unferth just goes along with what he says but still stays in doubt. However, some differences are that in the poem, Beowulf isn't shown as having any weaknesses and he is shown to be a very honest person. But, in the movie, it is shown that his weakness is women and that he had relations with different women. Also, he begins to lie a lot, in order to cover up the weakness that he has. In the poem there wasn't really evidence about if he did or didn't have a weakness for women and he about being a lia In contrast, the movie, when he is sent off to kill Grendelś mother, he became vulnerable and let her get in his thoughts and ended up not killing her. He lies to everyone and says that he killed her in order to cover up that he was able to be manipulated by her. This shows that in the Anglo-Saxon culture heros were seen as to being infallible, but in the movie, this wasn't shown and the hero was being shown as having flaws Another example of the similarities and differences in the poem and movie are the gender roles. In both the poem and movie, the roles of women are not as big as the roles that men have. In the poem, men were always talked about and woman were not. In the movie men and women were showed, however women were barely showed and were not as important as the men seemed to be. The men were showed most of time. A difference though, is that in the poem, woman were not mentioned but they were more seen as peace-keeping, mead bearers. However, in the movie, they are seen as sex objects and they are also seen as seductress´s who were just there to please the men. In the poem, there was no evidence for this, however in the movie, women were shown trying to be used as sexual object and used just to please the men and be there for entertainment like when the man in the mead hall was watching the lady clean, he was looking at her in a sexual way. Also the king wants the queen to sleep with him but she doesn't want to. Also the women are objectified because when Beowulf ¨killed¨ Grendel´s mother, the king gave her to him as if she were just an object. This proves that in Anglo-Saxon culture, women were not super important and had less responsibilities and in the movie it proves that in the present, some cultures still have those thoughts on women, that they are not super important to society. Furthermore, the last example of the similarities and differences between the poem and the movie is the role of religion. In both the poem and movie, both Christianity and Paganism are used.
In the poem, lines 724-727 show how they used christianity because Beowulf says ¨...Flames burn at his flesh, help/Our glorious king!
By almighty God, I'd rather burn myself than see/Flames swirling around my lord...¨. In lines 89-91 they use paganism because it is stated ¨And wondering what the bravest of warriors could do,/And sometimes they sacrificed to the old stone gods,/Made heathen vows, hoping for Hell´s...¨, the old stone gods are in fact the pagan gods. However, a difference in the role of religion is that Paganism is used more than christianity. In the scene where Hrothgar and Unferth are talking, Hrothgar mentions that they should pray to the pagan gods that things go well and then Unferth buts in and says ¨and to god¨ in the Christian way but then Hrothgar kind of shrugs it off and ignores him. This can relate to societies now because most areas use more than one religion and some areas still have a subtle war with
religion. In conclusion, some differences and similarities are shown in the movie and poem Beowulf: behavior of a hero, the roles that each gender has, and the role that religion is given. These similarities and differences show the various themes that are shown in modern and anglo-saxon societies. The hero is portrayed different in some ways but also is also portrayed similarly in other ways, Genders are not as equal as should be. And the roles of the religions are varied but are different but the same in other ways. Many themes in the poem and movie are similar to reality in some ways like in the sense of gender roles, some jobs pay men more than women just because they are men and in some occasions, women are seen as sexual objects and this should be limited or not done anymore.