Comparing Beowulf To Grendel's

Extra Characters in Beowulf

Beowulf is a story that has been around since the year 580, or since 1000 AD. With that being said, there are bound to be several adaptations and modern re-imaginings of the same story about this dynamic warrior and all his glorious battles. The epic Beowulf (Heaney,Seamus) and one of its modern adaptation Beowulf and Grendel (Gunnarson, S) has a few similarities, but they also have a great deal of differences, ranging from views on religion, Women, and even changing some of the story’s main characters. The movie’s addition of the main characters such as Grendel’s son, the witch, and Grendel’s dad, show that we, as the modern people, have a vastly different worldview with regards to the hardships of life’s complexities.

A major addition to the main character 's roster was Grendel’s son. The child is a product of Grendel and Selma, another additional

Because of this, it has to go through some sort of modification to appeal to the modern audiences that go out to watch or purchase this film. The film’s way of doing this feat is to add some characters that appeal to the audience, which include Selma, the witch, Grendel’s son, and Grendel’s father. For example, Selma was added to represent the percent of people that feel like outcasts, Grendel’s son was added to humanize Grendel and show that he is more than just a monster out to kill people for no reason, and Grendel’s father was added to,again, humanize Grendel, and to give him a reason to go out and kill all those people. The inclusion of these characters were to show that Grendel is a human just like the rest of the people out to get him, but because of the mistreatment of his father and the way he was made an outcast, he had no choice but to lash out at these soldiers. This is a perfect example that almost anything that comes in a story could have a truthful