Beowulf And Heaney: A Comparative Analysis

Throughout different translations of the Beowulf epic, composers put their unique touches on different situations to portray different ideas on the same issues that are brought up within the original old english version. This is truly evident during the portrayal of Grendel’s mother within the separate translations. The variance shown between translations helps to distinguish the differences between what each composer considers a villain to be personally. This is clearly evident between written translations and Robert Zemeckis film adaptation due to the visual imagery we receive when faced with Grendel’s mother. Even still their are small differences between written translations that play a major impact on how the author views villains as a whole. These differences helps the composers to display different viewpoints on how our society functions today.

In order to understand how each composer considers villainy, we must first understand how Grendel’s mother is depicted each version. While Heaney focuses his depiction

on the ruthlessness of a vicious creature from Beowulf’s view, both Purvis and Zemeckis put a more humanizing touch on Grendel’s mother. Within the encounter between Beowulf and Grendel’s mother the Heaney translation views the situation through Beowulf’s eyes as he “observe[s] that swamp-thing from hell”(Heaney 1518). In the Purvis translation Grendel’s mother’s “bodies kno[t] in rage at the sight of him(Beowulf)”(Purvis 65). In Heaney, the translation shows Beowulf observing Grendel’s mother as she prepares to attack. Although both descriptions mark Grendel’s mother as a vicious creature with a lot of dark imagery, Purvis’ use of the word’s “rage” and “sight” stand out when referring to Grendel’s mother. Where Heaney emphasizes the dehumanization of the creature by using hyphenated words such as “swamp-thing” and “tarn-hag”, yet Purvis takes a different approach. Purvis portrays the monster in a much more humanizing light by describing that Grendel’s mother sees Beowulf. By giving Grendel’s mother the sense of sight, the audience can more easily relate to the creature who has one of their senses. Not only that, but Purvis is able to show that Grendel’s mother has emotions. By mentioning that she is “in rage” at the sight of Beowulf shows that the creature actually is registering that Beowulf is the person who killed her only son, and she turns her sadness of this fact into anger against her opponent.
Robert Zemeckis goes even farther from portraying Grendel’s mother as an evil creature in his film adaptation of Beowulf. In this translation, Grendel’s mother is portrayed as a beautiful demon-witch with many human characteristics, including the ability to speak english. Not only that but by the seduction Beowulf, Grendel’s mother shows that she has the ability to critically think about situations and their outcomes. By giving Grendel’s mother all of these attributes Zemeckis humanizes the creature to the point where it may seem that she might be a human after all. These differences in interpretations of Grendel’s mother shows that each composer has a unique view of villainy.
To be able to comprehend how these differences suggest different types of villainy we must consider how the composers use these differences make us relate to Grendel’s mother throughout the different translations.

In Heaney’s version, we view the entirety of the battle between Beowulf and Grendel’s mother through Beowulf’s eyes. Heaney wants us to view Beowulf as a light in the dark, and this is apparent with phrases such as “Hygelac’s kinsman kept thinking about his name and game: he never lost heart”(Heaney 1529-30). As an audience we experience the ups and downs of this battle, rooting the entire time for the hero, Beowulf. By doing this, Heaney does not give us a chance to consider Grendel’s mother other than with the grim imagery he uses to describe her. It seems as if Heaney wants us to consider Grendel’s mother as a villain that is strong enough to present Beowulf with a challenge, but not strong enough to defeat his goodness in the

world.
On the other hand, Purvis does provide us with some insight to Grendel’s mother. One on side, Purvis still develops Grendel’s mother as an evil creature by following the epic and having her kill so many in Herot. However, he does give Grendel’s mother the humanistic qualities such as emotion, but also describing her with a more humanistic appearance by using words such as “hair” and “fingers”(Purvis 66). These attributes allow the audience to think more deeply about the creature. He portrays a mother that is yearning for her lost, which Heaney fails to do at all. With this Purvis develops a new villain, the misunderstanding between two sides, the darkness and light. This misunderstanding results in the epic fight that takes place between the preconceived hero and villain, when their might be underlying factors to the attacks on Heorot. Likewise, you can parallel is villain of understanding to modern day times with differences in language, religion, and thought processes resulting in misunderstandings, some of which have lead to world wars in the last century.
Finally, Zemeckis portrays Grendel’s mother even farther from what Heaney describes to us. His humanization goes so far that he puts Beowulf in a bad light. By not being able to resist the Demon’s seduction, he repeats the cycle that Hrothgar had started and falters in the face of a Grendel’s mother. By doing this the true villain of this encounter becomes unclear. On one side, Grendel’s mother tricks Beowulf into sleeping with her and giving her another son. Conversely some might say that Grendel’s mother is able to use her female attributes to overcome the hero of the Danes, and take a son from him while disrupting the male run society which is Heorot. Either way, Beowulf’s lack of self control results in a new son which will do damage to the halls of Heorot. Zemeckis uses this lack of self control as his unique villain in his translation. If Beowulf was able to control his body as well as his mind, he would of taken Grendel’s mother to be a more serious foe and would have given her a challenge in battle rather than dropping his sword. Not only that but Zemeckis is making a commentary on how our society is today, where people lack both self control and patience in their daily lives and how they always seem to take the easy way out.
The epic poem of Beowulf can be transposed in many different mediums with subtle difference in opinions between composers to make unique stories. This is evident within the translations that I have used to make my analysis. Whether it is Heaney’s clear distinction between good and evil, or Purvis’ development of misunderstanding, or Zemeckis creation of fault in Beowulf's ability to control himself, we can observe different images of Grendel’s mother within the same conflict of the original epic. These slight variances allow us some insight into the composer’s view of society and reminds us why Beowulf will remain with us forever as “it lives in its own continuous present”(heaney ix).