beowulf facts

A powerful monster, living down in the darkness, growled in pain, impatient….” (Lines one and two) This is how the epic poem Beowulf begins. There are many differences between the poem and the movie of Beowulf. I liked the poem better because there were more details and probably because I read the poem before I watched the movie, but I still enjoyed watching the movie because it was visually exciting. Even though the basic plot and characters are similar in the movie and the poem; their differences in some plot points and character portrayal make the film more relevant to viewers of today. Some of the differences between the poem and the movie of Beowulf that stuck out to me were: in the poem, Beowulf goes back to his homeland; the land of the Geats in Greatland to become king of his uncle’s kingdom while in the movie; he stays in the land of the Danes in Denmark to become king of Hrothgar’s kingdom which he took over for Hrothgar after he committed suicide. The other big difference is that in the epic poem, Beowulf kills Grendel’s mother right away when he gets the chance. In the movie, however, he does not and instead makes love to her and they have a human beast like creature or a dragon as a son. I was really quite surprised when I saw that in the movie. I defiantly didn’t expect that at all.

Other differences I noticed were the nature of Beowulf’s funeral. Towards the end of the movie, the elimination of the battle sequence had Beowulf fighting off the dragon also being his son; although in the poem, the battle ends in Grendel’s mother’s death.
In the poem and the movie, Beowulf receives fatal wounds and dies after the final battle against the dragon. He was cremated in both the poem and the movie but I feel as in the poem, there is so much more significance and details of the description of how he died. The movie did have a very strong ending though. Also, they portrayed Hrothgar to be this alcoholic drunk who