Grendel Vs Beowulf Research Paper

The book of Beowulf (Heaney) and the movie Beowulf and Grendel (Gunnarsson) have much in common; however, they definitely contain more differences because of shifts in culture that have taken place over the last 1300 years. The epic, more unrealistic and fanciful than the movie, reflects a more medieval mindset when it comes to understanding the relationship of good and evil. When cultural values come into play in the epic and the movie, so many changes and differences exist since time has made our ideas and thoughts more complex. These differences become especially clear when considering the characters that have been added to the Beowulf story through the movie and their effect upon Grendel, the epic’s villain turned anti-hero. In Beowulf, they only explain one side to this story and that’s the words and thoughts of the people of Herot and, of course, the great and powerful Beowulf. So the audience does not receive insight into what Grendel is thinking, nor the motive for him going into the mead hall and killing almost everyone in sight. Grendel is only seen as a creature of darkness and evil; “a fiend out of hell” (9). He was also given more characteristics of a monster rather than a human appearance. If he commits such gory crimes, then he is just evil …show more content…
He may be troubled, but he is still one who can have to ability and characteristics of a human being. Beowulf, the epic, is too simple for our culture now, but the movie is understandable and explains more about the characters, for the audience's liking. In Beowulf and Grendel, the extra characters added to Grendel’s point and he is definitely not the same monster he is as read and described in the epic. His father was murdered, he made love and created his own, and he was understood by a woman would care for him. These are the contrasts that make the epic from the olden days more modern in our time now in the movie; from Beowulf to Beowulf and