Comparison Of Beowulf In The Epic Book And Movie

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Beowulf the Epic: A three part poem written in near Omnipotentness, jumping from year to year, and character to character. It is about a man, if you can call him a man, with superhuman strength, with the ability to swim for eight days straight, breathe underwater, and to contest with nightmarish monsters in hand-to-hand combat. Just to name a few. He, notably, combats Grendel; a spawn of Cain himself. Grendel’s mother, who tries to avenge her son’s death. And a dragon of a near extinct dragon race. At the end of the book, Beowulf’s life comes to an end due to the poison in the fatal bite delivered by said dragon. Beowulf and Grendel: A movie released anywhere from 1500-2000 years after Beowulf the Epic is estimated to have been written. So it should be pretty different right? Grendel has a father, there is no dragon, there is swearing, and Beowulf lives? It isn’t so omnipotent, and Beowulf has great abilities but not the fabled abilities that are described in the Epic. This movie is nothing like the Epic Poem, …show more content…

Beowulf’s final opponent in Beowulf the Epic is a big angry dragon who had a vessel stolen from his treasure mound. Beowulf, with the help of Wiglaf, slays the dragon, but not before the dragon deals a death blow to his assassin. While bleeding profusely, Beowulf lives just long enough to digress one last time. In the movie, however, Beowulf doesn’t die, as it seems like he sails back to Geatland. There isn’t even a dragon to speak of in the movie. Beowulf the Epic had a lot of death, gory imagery, and the protagonist dies a bloody death. However, in the movie, there are borderline PG/PG-13 deaths, no blood to speak of, and Beowulf sails away to his homeland happily ever after. Why is that? The most obvious answer is to have a happy ending. (Finish

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