Epic Vs Beowulf

In Beowulf the epic poem (Heaney), there are set characters, cultures and beliefs that are changed in the making of the movie Beowulf and Grendel (Gunnarson.) No monk exists, Selma the witch takes no part in the epic folk, Grendel does not have a father, and Grendel definitely has no son in the epic folk. In contrast to the epic folk, the director of the movie Beowulf and Grendel decided that she would add more characters into the screenplay and includes them for obvious reason. In the folk epic, the ideas brought into the movie from the added characters has a big influence on Beowulf and on the storyline itself. The theme and story of this movie are made very intriguing with the addition of Grendel’s father, Selma the witch, and Grendel’s …show more content…
In Beowulf and Grendel the movie, the beginning scene starts off by showing a father and his very young son (Grendel) running across an open plain fleeing from King Hrothgar and his men. Grendel being just a little boy with no wrong doings in the world yet, hides because his father told him to do so as to not be killed. King Hrothgar kills Grendel’s dad and notices baby Grendel gazing at him. King Hrothgar takes pity on the small child and decides not to kill him. Baby Grendel watches his father die, and in knowing he will never get his father back and that he has no one else in the outside world that will care for him, he decapitates his father in a loving manner so that he will not be alone in the cold and desolate world. This is a depressing, but vital part of the movie because this start of a movie enhances the beginning of how Grendel becomes the so called “troll” that the Danes refer to him as. Out of a growing feeling of hate and melancholy feelings mixed with desolation and deprivation, Grendel grew with the thought that he would someday avenge his father’s death caused by that Danish King. The screen writing that Grendel has a father forms this story into perfect shape because in the folk epic, Grendel just kills and fights everyone who steps in his way for example, “... one, a fiend out of hell, began to work his evil in the world.” (pg. 9) Those were the beliefs of the big and powerful monster in …show more content…
In the folk epic, if Grendel produced a son with a witch, he most definitely would not have stayed in hiding and sought out to kill only King Hrothgar. Grendel would have believed that he and his son could roam the entire universe as freely as possible, Grendel and his son in the movie do not necessarily live in fear, but they know they are not welcomed. In the poem, they would not have cared one bit and would be out and about trying to gain power. By the addition of Selma, the storyline of the movie has an almost complete twist than that of the folk epic. Selma played a vital role in the movie through her ability to feel what other characters felt and see how other characters were to die. Through Selma’s advantage, the director of the movie furthered to help the viewer realize that Grendel is not the actual villain although it seems as if he is. In the end of the movie, through the witch Selma, King Hrothgar was the true evil and Grendel was simply a deprived, lonely, child-like adult who had to watch his father die as a kid. Finally, the input of the character that plays Grendel’s father in the movie is what bases the whole theme of the movie on, and the difference in moral and beliefs in the movie that did not exist in the folk epic. Through the addition of Grendel’s father comes the stimulation of the foundation of the revenge and