Grendel And Beowulf Comparison

Often when watching a movie based upon a piece of literature there are colossal differences; this is done to enhance the movie for the modern audiences. In the book Beowulf (Heaney, 2000) and in the screenplay Beowulf and Grendel (Gunnarson, 2005), there are some character changes that either highlights the character or downplays them from the work of literature. Like how characters are changed to fit what is wanted of them for the context, religion is also tied in to fit the context and to also aid in establishing the views of the author or screenwriter. Time and time again, details are altered to fix the author’s or director's view on how it should be portrayed. When the epic poem and film are compared, characters along with their qualities …show more content…
Of course the director of the film would choose to change him to be more relatable. Audiences tend to prefer characters, especially heroes, that they can relate to. In the film, audiences can see Beowulf actually think about his choices and he considers the consequences of his actions. He is also a more humbled hero than in the book. In the poem, Beowulf is basically described and thought of as perfect because that is what they saw him as. They saw their heroes as perfect humans with no flaws to them and nothing they could ever do would be wrong. That is the reason he is given so many epic boasts in the poem. He is confident of what he’s done and everyone acknowledges that he has no fault because he is the mighty Beowulf. In the screenplay there are epic boasts from him because that is his identity in the poem, but he was more human than perfect in the film. Also, he doesn’t look like the “super human” that he is portrayed as in the epic. In the epic, he is said to have “the strength of 30 men” (Beowulf, Heaney), but when compared to the movie he looks as a normal person appears and acts as a normal person appears. Another detail that was left out of the movie that was in the poem was what he wore when he battled Grendel. In the Grendel vs Beowulf scene in the book, he was said to have been naked, without any weapons to basically show that he is not fearful of him and to show that he …show more content…
In the epic poem, God is mentioned in many ways and there is a Christian influence even though he is also thought to be a viking. Religion is tied into the epic poem because that is what the writer of the poem believed in. Many biblical allusions are seen in the poem. The verse, “..a comfort sent by God to that nation..” (Beowulf, Lines 13-14) is like when said in the Bible, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son..” (Bible Hub). The way Jesus was the world’s salvation, Beowulf is said to be that nation’s salvation. Also, when compared, they are seen as perfect people with no faults such as the way they view Beowulf as a perfect person with no faults. That is how people of today are alike with the people who admired Beowulf as so. Another example of a biblical allusion is the mention of Cain “..whom the Creator had outlawed and condemned as outcasts. For the killing of Abel..” (Beowulf, Lines 106-107). In the poem, it’s from “..out of the curse of his exile there sprang ogres and elves and evil phantoms and the giants too who strove with God..” (Beowulf, Lines 111-113) They use the mention of Cain and the killing of his loved brother, Abel, as the reason that those creatures existed. It is also similar to how people gained original sin because of how Eve ate an apple from the tree of knowledge. If Cain hadn’t killed his brother or if