Compare And Contrast 13th Warrior Vs Beowulf

There are many similarities and differences between the movie 13th Warrior and the epic poem Beowulf. Beowulf was created around the time of the medieval age and the movie 13th Warrior is a present day interpretation of the epic poem. Throughout both the movie and the poem, the archetypes that the two mainly focus on are the monsters, the fight with evil, and with the superhuman heroes.

In the poem, the hero Beowulf fights three monsters - Grendel who is terrorizing Hrothgar's kingdom, Grendel's mother who isn’t as powerful as Grendel, but is mined for revenge, and the dragon who is mad due to a man stealing a bejeweled cup. In the poem, Grendel is one of the monsters who has a blood thirst for the kingdom's people as mentioned in context within

the poem. “The monster's mind was hot with the thought of food and the feasting his belly would soon know” (line 24).  This line from the poem shows that Grendel is a monster who feeds on the people of the kingdom. However, in movie, the hero, Buliwyf, fights along with 13 other warriors to defeat their monster, Wendol. Their monster was a group of men that were dressed in bear costumes, who acted like Grendel, terrorizing Hrothgar’s kingdom. The differences that the monsters have is that Grendel is one individual creature unlike in the movie where the monster is made up of many bear like creatures. Grendel`s mother and Wendol`s mother, both portrayed the same role; they were killed first and this set off the monsters.
With these monsters, in both the poem and the movie, they lead the plot to a fight with good vs.

evil. Beowulf's battle with Grendel serves as Beowulf's first battle in the poem. Hearing the news of a monster laying siege on  Hrothgar's kingdom, Beowulf travels land and sea to Heorot to defeat Grendel. Upon arriving, Beowulf and the other warriors spend the evening. After all the warriors were asleep, Grendel came into the hall and ate one of Beowulf's fellow warriors. Pretending to be sleep, Beowulf jumps up  and begins battling, which leads to Beowulf ripping Grendel's arm off. After Grendel retreats, Beowulf hangs the arm from the ceiling as mentioned in the poem, “The victory, for the proof, hanging high from the rafters where Beowulf hung it, was the monster's arm, claw and shoulder and all” (124-126). With this statement it shows that Beowulf has won this battle. In the movie the plot also takes place in King Hrothgar's kingdom. The 13 warriors arrive and confirm that the monster they are about to fight is Wendol, who comes with a mist to kill and eat human flesh. While the group searches through a destroyed village, they find a figurine of the mother. On their first night, three of the warriors - Hyglak, Ragnar, and Haltaf are killed, similar to what happened in the Poem. During the battle, Buliwyf and the warriors find that the Wendol are human cannibals who look like, and identify with bears. The men consult an ancient woman in the village who tells them to track

the Wendol to their lair and destroy their leaders, the mother and their warlord who wears the horns of power. Buliwyf and the remaining warriors find Wendol`s cave and kills the Mother, but not before Buliwyf is scratched on his shoulder by a poisoned fingernail claw.The remaining warriors return to the village and prepare for a final battle they don’t expect to win. Buliwyf limps outside before the fight and inspires the warriors. Buliwyf ends up killing the Wendol Warlord, causing their defeat, then dies from the poison. Both of the plots are very similar and result in the death of the main hero.
In the poem and the movie, both of the main characters, Beowulf and Buliwyf, exhibit superhuman traits.

Beowulf's superhuman strength is shown very blunt and is easy to identify. The first example appears with the first battle Beowulf' has with Grendel. Weapons useless against Grendel's tough skin and spells that are mentioned in the text "blunted every mortal man's blade."(94), show that he could not be harmed, but Beowulf still managed to rip Grendel's arm off at the shoulder with only his hands and strength. The second example that is shown is the giant-forged sword in Grendel's mother's lair. The poem describes the sword "so massive that no ordinary man could lift its carved and decorated length." (245). Not only does Beowulf  lift  thee blade from its hanging place on the wall, he also is able swing it hard enough to cut off the head of Grendel`s Mother. The last example was shown when Beowulf presents Grendel's head to Hrothgar and the Danes. After killing the Grendel’s mother, Beowulf was still angry. He went after the body of the already dead Grendel and then cuts off its head with the sword. It took four men to carry the head back to Herot, but when they arrived, Beowulf single-handedly tossed the head down on the table in front of the Danes, which also shows his superhuman strength yet

again.