Comparing Beowulf And Grendel's Mother
The choices made in the movie detract from my understanding of the poem. Throughout the poem, Hrothgar and Grendel’s mother are illustrated differently than from the film. In the poem I pictured Hrothgar as someone who, when Grendel was tormenting his people, felt “joyless in Herot…mourning the fate of his lost friends and companions.”(Beowulf 44) and instead he was shown as a heartless, inebriated king in the movie. In the poem, Grendel’s mother was described as a she-wolf, a monster (Beowulf 449) but, in the movie she is shown as a beautiful creature, with an attractive human-like body, and not a “wolf” like appearance. The course of events in the poem, such as the battle against Grendel’s mother and the truth behind Grendel’s identity,
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are much different from those of the movie. Throughout the movie during Beowulf’s battle against Grendel’s mother, she makes Beowulf and offer he can’t resist, by him giving her a child in return for the Hrothgar's throne. On the other hand, in the poem, Beowulf does not hesitate to murder Grendel’s mother, and he does so by using a sword made by giants and cutting through her “neck…broke bones and all.”(Beowulf 539)) In the poem Grendel is said to be “conceived by a pair of…monsters born of Cain, murderous creatures banished by god”(Beowulf 19) and in the movie he is said to have been conceived by Hrothgar and Grendel’s mother.
The setting of the battle against Grendel’s mother and the battle against the Dragon, in the movie detracts from my understanding of the poem. When Beowulf went to face Grendel’s mother in the poem, the lair was described as a place where even a “deer hunted through the woods by a pack of hounds, a stag with great horns…prefers to die on those shores.”(Beowulf 433) instead of going into the lake. Alternatively the movie depicts the lair as a difficult place to reach, but not impossible, it appears to be less scary than that of the poem. Throughout the battle against the Dragon, ‘Beowulf’s son,’ the setting is Grendel’s mother’s lair. In the poem, the battle took place in a different place, on the contrary in the movie, it was fought in the same place where Beowulf went to talk to Grendel’s mother. The characters, the sequence of events, along with the certitude behind Grendel’s progenitor and the background of the movie lessen my original comprehension of the
poem.
are much different from those of the movie. Throughout the movie during Beowulf’s battle against Grendel’s mother, she makes Beowulf and offer he can’t resist, by him giving her a child in return for the Hrothgar's throne. On the other hand, in the poem, Beowulf does not hesitate to murder Grendel’s mother, and he does so by using a sword made by giants and cutting through her “neck…broke bones and all.”(Beowulf 539)) In the poem Grendel is said to be “conceived by a pair of…monsters born of Cain, murderous creatures banished by god”(Beowulf 19) and in the movie he is said to have been conceived by Hrothgar and Grendel’s mother.
The setting of the battle against Grendel’s mother and the battle against the Dragon, in the movie detracts from my understanding of the poem. When Beowulf went to face Grendel’s mother in the poem, the lair was described as a place where even a “deer hunted through the woods by a pack of hounds, a stag with great horns…prefers to die on those shores.”(Beowulf 433) instead of going into the lake. Alternatively the movie depicts the lair as a difficult place to reach, but not impossible, it appears to be less scary than that of the poem. Throughout the battle against the Dragon, ‘Beowulf’s son,’ the setting is Grendel’s mother’s lair. In the poem, the battle took place in a different place, on the contrary in the movie, it was fought in the same place where Beowulf went to talk to Grendel’s mother. The characters, the sequence of events, along with the certitude behind Grendel’s progenitor and the background of the movie lessen my original comprehension of the
poem.