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The Beowulf Movie Vs Poem

872 Words4 Pages

Loyalty, fame, and glory; that is what Anglo-Saxons strived for and to this day, it’s what many of us endeavor. A thane who successfully achieved all three of these beliefs is known as the almighty Beowulf. This Anglo-Saxon gained loyalty, greatness, and honor in countless ways. He bravely fought vicious dragons, monsters, and obtained superhuman strength, but he is portrayed much differently in the movie than in the poem. Although the Beowulf movie and poem share many similarities, the different portrayals of Beowulf, the individual gender roles, and the themes presented in both versions unveil the values of the societies that created them. To begin, the Beowulf movie and poem share both similarities and differences in the portrayal of the …show more content…

The poem and movie both shared themes that revolved around their beliefs of Christianity and Anglo-Saxon culture. The movie presented a character, known as Unferth, that represented the Christian belief system, especially later on in the movie. Unferth was Hrothgar’s, the King of the Danes, left hand warrior who assisted him with many of his duties as king. After Grendel first attacked Herot, Unferth revealed an idea with Hrothgar that all thanes should pray to the Christian gods in hope that the gods within the other religion would assist them with discarding the monstrous beast. Even though this was said towards the beginning of all terror, Unferth continued with the ideas of Christianity when he became a priest where he symbolized that religion because he wore a massive cross over his neck and resides in a church. (Insert quote here) When relating to Christianity in the poem, the author presented Beowulf as the Almighty God. “Now he discovered -- once the afflictor of men, tormentor of their days -- what it meant to feud with Almighty God…” (331-333) In these lines, they are relating the “Almighty God” to Beowulf as he symbolizes the good defeating the evil. The theme presented in the movie is that history repeats itself, which is true. History is repeating itself from king to king because each ruler tends to become a victim of …show more content…

These similarities and differences included the way Beowulf acted in the movie versus the poem. This also applies to the gender roles and themes. If I was an evil force back in the Anglo-Saxon era, I would stay away from Beowulf that’s for

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