Beowulf Comparison

Beowulf is an ancient story about a hero who must fight many monsters over the course of his life. The story adaptation that we read detailed the fights between Beowulf, and three of the monsters he fought. The three monsters discussed, were Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and a dragon who has terrorized Beowulf’s kingdom. The story of Beowulf has also been adapted into a movie. However, there are quite a few major differences between the written story, and the movie. Things such as the characters, some major plot details, and the theme were changed. The characters in the movie were much more multi-dimensional than the characters in the book. For example, in the book, Beowulf is only shown as being the perfect hero. He is strong, courageous,

In Beowulf, Grendel attacks when everyone is asleep, and Beowulf kills him by ripping his arm off with his bare hands. In the movie, Grendel attacks in the middle of the celebration the Danes are having, and Beowulf uses a chain and the door to pull off Grendel’s arm. Also in the movie, Grendel is the son of Hrothgar. After killing Grendel, Grendel’s mother came to fight Beowulf. According to the text, she was “Prepared to avenge her only son.” She came and took Hrothgar’s closest friend as a form of revenge. However, in the movie, Grendel’s mother kills everyone except Wiglaf. When Beowulf goes to fight her in revenge, he does not end up killing her. Instead, he makes a deal with her in order to be king. She then has a son that belongs to Beowulf, who later turns out to be the dragon he must fight. In Beowulf the story, after fighting Grendel and his mother, Beowulf goes home to Geatland. In the movie, he stays and becomes king of the Danes after Hrothgar kills himself. When Beowulf fights the dragon in the story, all of his men except Wiglaf flee. Together, he and Wiglaf kill the dragon, but Beowulf is mortally wounded, and after seeing the treasure he won by killing the dragon he dies. His people use his ashes and build a tower in his honor. In the movie, Beowulf fights the dragon, which is his son, by himself. His men do not run, they stay and help him. There is no treasure won, and Beowulf dies

In the story, since it was written by monks, the overall message was that good will always win against evil. Grendel and his mother are descendants of Cain, who was an evil character in the Bible. When describing them, the text says, “...shut away from men; they split into a thousand forms of evil-”. This means that all the monsters in the story are considered evil. Beowulf is portrayed as the perfect hero, therefore he is assumed to be “good”. Hence the reason Beowulf always wins his fights. However, in the movie, the theme was changed. Grendel and the other monsters are given more characteristics besides simply being evil. They almost want you to feel sorry for them. They also shift some of the blame onto the humans in the story. For example, the monsters being the offspring of both Hrothgar and Beowulf. This changes the message to something more along the lines of not everything is the way it seems. Sometimes the monsters we must fight are our own