Beowulf: Real or Not Real?
A Study in Realism and its’ Cultural Implications
Through the years, society as a whole has changed vastly. These changes are quite prominently reflected in two works: Beowulf, written in the Anglo-Saxon times, and a twenty-first century film entitled Beowulf and Grendel. Seeing cultural differences in literary works truly helps us understand the cultural values at one location or point in time. Although both of the works are in the same language, the lengthy time difference between the works being written displays the contrasting views and attitudes toward life over time. The epic poem Beowulf takes realism to a new level, challenging what we would believe as “real” in modern times, whereas the movie writers clearly …show more content…
In real life, it is highly unlikely to have someone be capable of that immense amount of strength. One example shown in the epic poem starts in line 530, in which Beowulf recounts his great swimming race with Breca. He describes how they swam for five nights, all while fighting off sea-monsters and other foes. Beowulf states that he killed nine sea-monsters overall, before landing on the coast of Finland. No person could possibly believe that a man could swim for five whole nights while fighting off sea-monsters at the same time. (Beowulf, 36) Sea-monsters are a work of fiction presently, giving another reason to feel the lack of realism Beowulf presents to us. At first, Unferth proclaims Beowulf had lost the swimming race against Breca, but Beowulf quickly returns his insult with a great boast. The cultural implications of having such outrageous stories back then are that the scops would stretch the truth at times to make the story more interesting. Thus, we can see that their culture valued a hero’s ability to protect their community, rather than just sit at a …show more content…
Beowulf’s character overall in the movie is much more relatable, showing the cultural implications mentioned earlier, relatable equals more viewers, which translates into more realism throughout media. In the movie adaptation, Beowulf is portrayed by Gerard Butler. He is depicted as a normal-sized man, with strength not as intense as “thirty men in one hand”. Beowulf in the movie is quite different than Beowulf in the epic poem, seeing as how Beowulf actually wears clothes while he is fighting Grendel at the mead hall. There is a large drama in the movie, extending the period before Grendel busts into the mead hall to fight Beowulf, most likely for dramatic effect. If there had been no lead-up to this main point in the story, most viewers probably would not have thought the quickness as interesting. Beowulf contrasts the strength portrayed in the epic poem by changing his fighting tactic in the mead hall. In the epic, Beowulf rips Grendel’s arm off, while in the movie, Grendel ends up getting caught on a chain and cuts his own arm off to free himself. This displays the cultural implications of lowering Beowulf’s strength to a real man’s strength, while raising his logic, which would relate to modern-day people
A Study in Realism and its’ Cultural Implications
Through the years, society as a whole has changed vastly. These changes are quite prominently reflected in two works: Beowulf, written in the Anglo-Saxon times, and a twenty-first century film entitled Beowulf and Grendel. Seeing cultural differences in literary works truly helps us understand the cultural values at one location or point in time. Although both of the works are in the same language, the lengthy time difference between the works being written displays the contrasting views and attitudes toward life over time. The epic poem Beowulf takes realism to a new level, challenging what we would believe as “real” in modern times, whereas the movie writers clearly …show more content…
In real life, it is highly unlikely to have someone be capable of that immense amount of strength. One example shown in the epic poem starts in line 530, in which Beowulf recounts his great swimming race with Breca. He describes how they swam for five nights, all while fighting off sea-monsters and other foes. Beowulf states that he killed nine sea-monsters overall, before landing on the coast of Finland. No person could possibly believe that a man could swim for five whole nights while fighting off sea-monsters at the same time. (Beowulf, 36) Sea-monsters are a work of fiction presently, giving another reason to feel the lack of realism Beowulf presents to us. At first, Unferth proclaims Beowulf had lost the swimming race against Breca, but Beowulf quickly returns his insult with a great boast. The cultural implications of having such outrageous stories back then are that the scops would stretch the truth at times to make the story more interesting. Thus, we can see that their culture valued a hero’s ability to protect their community, rather than just sit at a …show more content…
Beowulf’s character overall in the movie is much more relatable, showing the cultural implications mentioned earlier, relatable equals more viewers, which translates into more realism throughout media. In the movie adaptation, Beowulf is portrayed by Gerard Butler. He is depicted as a normal-sized man, with strength not as intense as “thirty men in one hand”. Beowulf in the movie is quite different than Beowulf in the epic poem, seeing as how Beowulf actually wears clothes while he is fighting Grendel at the mead hall. There is a large drama in the movie, extending the period before Grendel busts into the mead hall to fight Beowulf, most likely for dramatic effect. If there had been no lead-up to this main point in the story, most viewers probably would not have thought the quickness as interesting. Beowulf contrasts the strength portrayed in the epic poem by changing his fighting tactic in the mead hall. In the epic, Beowulf rips Grendel’s arm off, while in the movie, Grendel ends up getting caught on a chain and cuts his own arm off to free himself. This displays the cultural implications of lowering Beowulf’s strength to a real man’s strength, while raising his logic, which would relate to modern-day people