The movie Beowulf and Grendel (Gunnarsson, 2005) , depicts a Beowulf that changes throughout the movie and over time, while the poem, reflects a Beowulf that remains the same throughout the whole poem, which helps to express the modern idea present society holds when interpreting the works of good and evil, and how their is a cultural difference between modern society and the Anglo-Saxons. When reading the poem, the reader can infer that Beowulf is a mighty, glorious, and resilient warrior. A flawless warrior with the strength of 30 men, and a hero with remarkable physical characteristics. (Heaney, 2000) Back then, this was the definition and depiction of a “warrior”, however, as time passed, this expectation of a “warrior/hero” has evolved.
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When the reader reads the epic, the thought would never cross his/her mind that Beowulf is going to become soft, or that Beowulf is going to develop feelings for Grendel, and actually understands the reasoning for Grendel’s actions. Now that the event of Grendel speaking, an even more mind-boggling even occurs, in that Beowulf builds a shrine for Grendel at the end of the film. This event is never mentioned in the epic, for the tone and attitude that the author gives the story and Beowulf, would not involve the building of a shrine for the treacherous monster Grendel. In the Anglo-Saxon culture as well as modern society, a shrine is usually built to honor someone or something for accomplishing something great. For example, in the epic, a shrine is built for Beowulf to honor him for his death. The reader can already assume that Beowulf accomplished something great because all of Beowulf’s battles and victories are mentioned throughout the whole epic, hence the reasoning for building a shrine for Beowulf at the end of the epic. However, Grendel was built a shrine, but in both the movie and the epic, all Grendel brought upon people was death, and he had no great battles or victories that were worth being built a shrine for. This event surely causes the viewer of the film to question the origins of the reasoning of building Grendel a shrine. Could this be to further arouse sorrow for Grendel in the audience? Why would Grendel rather than Beowulf be worthy of being built a shrine? When viewing the beginning of the movie, before Beowulf takes on the task of killing Grendel, he asks Hrothgar, the Danish king, “Is there anything that I need to know, or you need to tell me?”. Hrothgar denies Beowulf and assures him that there is nothing that needs to be said that would help Beowulf in
When the reader reads the epic, the thought would never cross his/her mind that Beowulf is going to become soft, or that Beowulf is going to develop feelings for Grendel, and actually understands the reasoning for Grendel’s actions. Now that the event of Grendel speaking, an even more mind-boggling even occurs, in that Beowulf builds a shrine for Grendel at the end of the film. This event is never mentioned in the epic, for the tone and attitude that the author gives the story and Beowulf, would not involve the building of a shrine for the treacherous monster Grendel. In the Anglo-Saxon culture as well as modern society, a shrine is usually built to honor someone or something for accomplishing something great. For example, in the epic, a shrine is built for Beowulf to honor him for his death. The reader can already assume that Beowulf accomplished something great because all of Beowulf’s battles and victories are mentioned throughout the whole epic, hence the reasoning for building a shrine for Beowulf at the end of the epic. However, Grendel was built a shrine, but in both the movie and the epic, all Grendel brought upon people was death, and he had no great battles or victories that were worth being built a shrine for. This event surely causes the viewer of the film to question the origins of the reasoning of building Grendel a shrine. Could this be to further arouse sorrow for Grendel in the audience? Why would Grendel rather than Beowulf be worthy of being built a shrine? When viewing the beginning of the movie, before Beowulf takes on the task of killing Grendel, he asks Hrothgar, the Danish king, “Is there anything that I need to know, or you need to tell me?”. Hrothgar denies Beowulf and assures him that there is nothing that needs to be said that would help Beowulf in