Comparing Beowulf And Grendel's

Culture has evolved vastly from the Middle Ages to the Modern Age. During the Middle Ages, the style of writing might be considered, from a modern perspective, to have been simplistic and barbaric, but today’s society demands greater complexity in both its heroes and its villains. An example of such a discrepancy can be seen in the epic Beowulf, written about 600 AD, and the movie Beowulf and Grendel, produced in 2005. The movie’s addition of particular characters to the Beowulf story— such as Grendel’s dad and the witch—illustrate the vastly different worldview we have today with regard to the complexities of good and evil.
In the epic Beowulf, Grendel—a grim “demon”—terrorizes the lands of Danes when people were at their most vulnerable state—nightfall (Heaney 2000). Grendel destroys Hrothgar’s mead hall, Heorot, after butchering the warriors sleeping inside. The epic Beowulf provides the reader with paltry …show more content…
The addition of particular characters to the film Beowulf and Grendel alters the portrayal of Hrothgar because it reveals that he murdered an innocent man—Grendel’s father. Although the reason why Hrothgar killed Grendel’s dad is not revealed until the end of the film, the audience of the 21st century can sense that Hrothgar is malicious by his actions towards other characters. For instance, in the movie Beowulf and Grendel, Beowulf questions Hrothgar about Grendel’s actions, and Hrothgar responds to him that Grendel “has not killed any children…[but is a] crazy troll”, which is why he is attacking the mead hall. This portrays a Hrothgar that is deceiving and malicious because he hides the truth—he killed Grendel’s father because he stole a fish—from Beowulf to get him to finish his job of killing Grendel. Modern social views regard Hrothgar’s reason to kill Grendel’s father as unreasonable; therefore, depicting Hrothgar as the villain instead of