Beowulf: comparison of the poem with its film adaptation.

Beowulf, the Anglo-Saxon epic poem written around 700 a.d., is considered by many

critics as the first important work of English literature, so it is the perfect source for a

modern adventure movie. There have been several attemps to adapt the original text to

the screen: Beowulf (1999) directed by Graham Baker and starring Christopher Lambert,

Beowulf and Grendel (2005) directed by..... and starring Gerard Butler, and the 2007

adaptation, also entitled Beowulf, directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Ray

Winstone, Anthony Hopkins and Angelina Jolie. It is this last movie the one we are going

to compare with the original text.

The poem tells the story of Beowulf, a powerful warrior who is called by the king

Hrothgar of Denmark to help him defeat the demon Grendel. Beowulf kills him but a new

threat will come up: Grendel's mother, who now seeks revenge for the murder of his son.

Eventually, he will also have to defeat a dragon. The movie also follows this plot line, but

after reading the poem and watching the film a main question arises: to what extent is the

film adaptation faithful to the original text?

First of all, it is well-known the fact that in order to bring to the screen any literary text,

the story has to be modified in order to appeal to the general audience. What people

nowadays want in an adventurous movie is action and emotion; in this sense, the

scriptwriters of Beowulf, Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary, had to change some aspects but

always maintaining the essence and the message of the original text. It also must be said

that, just like Beowulf, many other old heroes and epic works have been the source of

good movies; this is the case of the ancient heores Ulysses and Heracles, or the modern
The Lord of the Rings and the Spanish El Cantar del Mio Cid.

To start with, we find shocking differences in the way some characters are presented. In

fact, it can be said that the most striking difference between the poem and the movie is

the main character Beowulf's depiction. The literary Beowulf is a hero, both in heart and

in behaviour. His righteousness and nobility, together with his fierce in fighting against

his evil enemies, make him become king of Geatland; a wise and successful governor

who will find his end only after defeating a powerful dragon; hence, the literay character

has all the heroic features. On the other hand, the Beowulf presented in the movie (played

by Ray Winstone) is way more humanised; he is an imperfect hero, with the weaknesses

which any human has; in fact, he soon submits to the seduction of Grendel's mother.

Moreover, when he becomes king, he is presented in the movie as a greedy and kind of

vain person, who aims at achieving power and glory, and he even shared the bed with

young women other than his wife.

The Danes' portray is also rather different in the movie, as instead of righteous warriors

we find drunk and womanizing men. Regarding their king, Hrothgar, he is a wise and

honorable governor, and a model king for Beowulf, described in the poem as "Their

mighty prince, the storied leader" (129-130). However, in the movie he is depicted as a

rather corrupted man who loves music, women and alcohol. As far as his wife

Wealththeow is concerned, there is also a difference in the literary character and the one

in the movie; in the text she is a gracious woman who is deeply in love with her husband;

however, in the movie she rejects his king kissing her and she even refuses to lie with

him in bed, fact which does not happen in the poem. Furthermore, these two, Hrothgar

and Wealtheow have two sons, as the poem explains: Hrothmund and Hrethric, while in
the film they are not mentioned at all.

Another character whose portray has been quite modified is the antagonist Grendel, as in

the movie he has been more "humanized". He is a demon descendant from Cain, a

horrible and cruel creature, who has no sense of sensitivity towards any human being, "a

fiend out of hell" (100), "insensible to pain and human sorrow" (119-120), "the God-

cursed brute" (121), "greedy and grim" (122), "Malignant by nature, he never showed

remorse" (137), "Grendel waged his lonely war, inflicting constant cruelties on the

people, atrocious hurt" (164-166). In the movie this nature of the monster is maintained,

but there the differences are, firstly, that he can somehow speak; secondly, that in the

movie he is half-demon, son of a female demon and a man (Beowulf); and thirdly, in the

poem his cruelty towards people is not justified ("nobody knows where these reavers

from hell roam on their errands.", 164-165), while in the movie his reasons are that he is

taking revenge as humans once sinned against him; so the director or the film wants us to

understand and sympathise with the monster; besides, we even feel pity for him when he

is injured.

Regarding Grendel's mother's depiction, it is also modified. In the poem she is similar to

his son, a demon, evil by nature: " [...] huge maraucers from some other world. One of

these things, as far as anyone can discern, looks like a woman; [...] They are fatherless

creatures, and their whole ancestry is hidden in apast of demons and ghosts." (1348-

1357). But in the film, she is a seductive beautiful woman, who seduced Beowulf and lies

with him in bed, and who seems to have more power than him. In fact, she is played by

the pretty Angelina Jolie (who does not get seduced by her?). Furthermore, in the movie

she is the mother of Grendel, who is also son of Hrothgar, and the mother of the dragon,
son of Beowulf; relationships which have been totally invented by the playwriters of the

movie, as Beowulf is the son of Ecgtheow, and this one has no sons.

As far as the events and story line are concerned, the movie Beowulf is pretty faithful to

the poem in its first part, until Beowulf kills Grendel. However, the rest of the movie is

rather different from the original text. Some differences worth pointing out are the

following:

In the second part, after the celebration of Beowulf's victory upon Grendel,

this last's mother takes revenge and attacks Heorot, the mead hall. But while

in the text she just takes away some men, in the movie she kills every man

except for Beowulf and his friend Wiglaf. There, she also kills Aeschere,

Hrothgar most beloved counselor ("a soul mate to me, a true mentor, my

right hand [...] Aeschere was everything the world admires in a wise man and

friend", 1323-1329); hence, in the text, the king is devastated for this loss,

but in the movie he does not give it that much importance. Moreover, in the

text Beowulf kills Grendel's mother with a sword ("took a firm hold of the hill

and swung the blade in an arc, a resolute blow that bit deep into her neck-

bone and severed it entirely", 1564-1567), while in the movie he just lays

with her, seduced by her charms, and when he strikes her with his sword she

is not even injured.

The third part also presents great differences. One of the greatest

modifications is that Beowulf has became king of the Geats, while in the

movie he is king of the Danes. Besides, the batle with the dragon is totally

modified, not only the process but also the end: in the text we have Beowulf

and the warrior Wiglaf killing the dragon with stabbing him first in the belly
(Wiglaf) and then Beowulf into its flank. But in the movie scene includes a

whole army fighting the monster, arrows and spears, a different setting (a

clastle), and we have Beowulf crushing the dragon's heart with his own

hands. Eventually, the end is completely different: not only the funeral and

the last appearance of Grendel's mother in the movie, but also our

protagonist's final speech is modified: instead of the sober and magnificient

words of the literary Beowulf, who thanks the Lord for all the good things in

his life and for the good things he has given to the Geats, we have the film

version where he shows his weaknesess and regrets.

So, as a conclusion, we are dealing with two really different stories. On the

one hand, we are in fron of an epic poem which tells the heroic adventures of

Beowulf, a great warrior who defeats the most horrible creatures and helps

the noble and luchadores Danes, and who eventually becomes a successful

king. On the other hand, the figure of this hero is modified to fit an adventure

"Hollywood style" film, where the characters have current human weakness,

and where even the monsters are humanised. Hence, after reading the

Anglo-Saxon great poem Beowulf, we should not expect much of its plot line,

characters and emotions from its film adaptation of 2007.

Bibliography

Beowulf, Screenplay by Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary. Dir. Robert Zemeckis. Perf.

Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins and Angelina Jolie. Warner Bros Pictures, 2007.

Beowulf. A Verse Translation. Ed. Daniel Donogue, Trans. Seamus Heaney.

New York: Norton, 2002.

IMDB (The Internet Movie Database), ...., ....., ....., 20 May 2010. < .... >