Some individuals believe that meeting a beautiful woman with bad intentions is the worst thing in the world. The way they portrayed Grendel’s Mother in the canto’s compared to the movie Beowulf (2007) was completely different. They explained her in the cantos as a huge, gross, disgusting monster. In Beowulf (2007) she is portrayed as the complete opposite, she is beautiful, fit, and does not even appear as a “monster”. Grendel’s Mother, in the book, is portrayed as a horrific monster of that society’s time, and in the movies, she is portrayed like a monster of today’s society, a beautiful woman with bad intentions.
In the cantos, the first time Beowulf and Grendel’s Mother “met” they had a huge battle which could have ended either one of their lives. “And now it was known that a monster had died / But a monster still lived, and meant revenge. / She’d brooded on her loss, misery had brewed / In her heart, that female horror, Grendel’s Mother…” (Ringler 19) In Beowulf (2007) there was no battle between the two, there was not
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even any conflict. They changed that whole part from the epic, from a huge battle that ended Grendel’s Mother's life, to Beowulf and Grendel’s Mother having sexual intercourse and eventually having a child, the dragon. Therefore, they also changed how the dragon came into the epic, in the cantos, the dragon is not Beowulf’s son. The people did steal something from the dragon in both Beowulf (2007) so that is the same. Which would hook a viewer more, a character in a movie that is fat, ugly, and hairy or beautiful and fit? “The wicked creature / who shared her exile / had the shape of a man / but was huge, much huger / than human beings.” (Ringler 20) Grendel’s Mother is portrayed like an ugly, fat, hair, evil monster in the cantos, and in the movie she is very beautiful and fit. The director did this to hook the viewer, to pull in anyone watching the film, and it worked. If Grendel’s Mother was a huge, nasty monster, viewers would not be hooked into the film. Everyone knows that a beautiful woman would get more attention than a nasty, hairy monster, so the director took advantage of that. What type of motivation did the director have to change the whole role of Grendel’s Mother?
What made the director change the whole story from Grendel’s Mother and Beowulf having a huge battle, to having a “child” together. “Swooping suddenly, / she seized the hero / in cruel clutches, / but her claws failed / to injure him; / their on rings / of his mail ensured / that she might not pierce / that linked war-shirt / with her long talons.” (Ringler 22) This quote gives the readers a brief idea of how the actual actual fight in the cantos went, but it doesn’t spoil anything. The movie didn’t even come close to a fight, Beowulf went down into her cave-like home, but no battle took place. Grendel’s Mother seduced Beowulf, she touched him, got super close to him, gave off sexual vibes to him and Beowulf did exactly what she wanted to happen. Beowulf killed her only son, so she wanted him to give her another, and that is how the dragon comes
along. The director of the film changed Grendel’s Mother’s appearance so she could lure whoever she wants into her “trap” she calls her body. She got Beowulf with it, and there became the dragon, and in the end, she also traps Wiglaf and gets him to walk out into the water with her. Grendel’s Mother, in the cantos, is portrayed as a horrific monster of that society’s time, and in the film, she is portrayed very different. She is portrayed as what could be seen as a monster of this current time period, a beautiful, and seductive woman with bad intentions. One could believe they changed her appearance just so she could lure Beowulf right into her trap, and others could believe the change was made to keep the viewer entertained.
Rudd cites various sections of the poem, describing Grendel as a “night-monster of the border lands” (Rudd 3), and the translation of the poem says that Grendel was, “...Conceived by a pair of those monsters born Of Cain, murderous creatures banished By God…” (Raffel 42). Rudd also gives evidence for Grendel being seen as demonic, and reasons that Grendel attacks the Danes out of “...not mere thirst for gore, as we might suspect… but rather… envy of the Danes’ happiness- and envy was a chief characteristic of the medieval devil.” (Ruud 5). He then ties this devilish persona to Grendel’s humanistic aspects, stating Grendel has a heathen soul, and therefore he must be human. Ruud also notes, however, that there are critics who question the validity of portraying Grendel as this three-sided figure, asking questions such as, “How can Grendel be a devil when he has a physical body? How can he be a man when he is so manifestly bestial?” (Ruud 7). Ruud believes that the original poet of Beowulf is doing this for effect rather than consistency, but a more reasonable explanation that encompasses all three characteristics is that Grendel represents the evil in
as men. She has been sleeping down in her dark and dingy cave below the world
Beowulf sees Grendel's mother in a cave. He tries to hit her with his sword, Unferth's Hrunting, but it fails to pierce her skin. So he throws the sword away and attacks the mother with his bare hands. He trusts "in his strength, his mighty hand-grip." Beowulf manages to throw Grendel's mother down; however, she quickly retaliates and is soon sitting on top of him. She tries to kill him with a dagger, but Beowulf's armor protects him this time. Beowulf managed to throw her off of himself and sees a sword of enormous size, which he immediately grabs.
The battle with Grendel’s mother differ from the battle with Grendel because when Beowulf fought with Grendel he used no weapon “my hands alone should fight for me” line 174. On the day of the battle, when Grendel saw Beowulf he was scared for the first time “ Grendel's one thought was to run from Beowulf, flee back to his marsh and hide there.” line 278 But when Beowulf fought with Grendel’s mother, at the beginning Beowulf was fighting for his live “ For the first time in years of being worn to war it would earn no glory” line 484 Beowulf was losing , she was to fast and “no sword could slice her evil skin.” He needed his weapons fight for him, and Grendel’s mother was not scared of his strength as Grendel
No one knows who wrote Beowulf but we do know who wrote Grendel. John Gardner took the epic Beowulf and added more to the brilliant story. Grendel takes on the same story as Beowulf but from the perspective of Grendel, the beast in Beowulf. The story of Grendel is very interesting because from reading Beowulf it is completely uninspected. In Beowulf Grendel is said to be a disgusting monster that’s only job is to kill. In Grendel we really see him as very nice but turns to be evil because he is pushed into that direction.
When compared the Movie and the Epic have the same story arc (Beowulf and Grendel, Beowulf and Grendel’s Mother and Beowulf and the Dragon). Starting out similarly with Grendel's slaughter of the Danes through Beowulf’s defeat of Grendel. However, turning in the opposite direction when Grendel’s Mother is introduced. Thus interpreting and changing the finer details of said story.
Since this is ancient times this is the time where women were not as equal with men as they are in the present. This is the reason why this chapter will be my favorite out of the whole poem. This is the chapter where Grendel's Mother shows how powerful we women are and she takes out Hrothgar’s best man. You can already see that they did not really appreciate women because they did not take the time to remember Grendel's mother’s name, and in the poem she is called Grendel's Mother.
The supernatural has an important role in Beowulf. Because Beowulf exhibits supernatural in some way, but always seems to come back to religion at the end. Beowulf 's society examins its people through their actions; honor, heroism, courage, and evil. As Beowulf faces three adversaries (Grendel, Grendel 's mother and the dragon). He show 's that he can never be defeated because he has enormous strength and Godly power. Though the bible connects Cain to Beowulf, Beowulf 's author establishes Grendel 's mother as definitive evil, which reveals that she could have been Eve in the story.
Despite her evil actions, it is evident that there is less malice in her than Grendel and she is less of a symbol of pure evil than he is. For example, her attack on Heorot is somewhat appropriate and could be considered honorable by the standards of warrior culture, as it marks an attempt to avenge one’s son’s death. In fact, the motive for her attack is similar to Beowulf’s motive for his attack on her: avenging the death of a loved one. One of the most interesting aspects of Grendel’s mother’s attachment to this vengeance-demanding code that the warriors follow is that she is depicted as not entirely alien or monstrous. Her behavior is not only comprehensible but also justified. In other ways, however, Grendel and his mother are indeed portrayed as creatures from another world. One aspect of their difference from the humans portrayed in the poem is that Grendel’s strong parental figure is his mother rather
In the poem “Beowulf,” Grendel’s mother, a monstrous creature, is one of the three antagonists Beowulf, the main character, fights against. The battle against Grendel’s mother appears to be the strangest of the three battles. The main reason for its strangeness is that Grendel’s mother is the mother of the monster Grendel, who was killed by Beowulf in the first battle. Another reason for its strangeness is that Grendel’s mother is the only female-type creature. An alternative reason for this strangeness in the battle is due to the fact that Grendel’s mother is not a true monster, aside from her physical form. Through the explanation of kinship, the understanding of the missing words from the original text, and the comparison of Grendel’s mother to other mothers in the poem, specifically Welthow and Hildeburh, it can be established that the intentions of Grendel’s mother are not monstrous even though she has the appearance of a monster.
...The film version makes a lot more sense than the poem as to why Grendel was a curse to the Danes. In the poem, we only know Grendel attacks the Danes, because he does not like the loud noises they make from rejoicing and celebrating. It is not mentioned why Grendel is there, only that he is decedent from Cain and evil. The film gives more of an explanational background story as to why the creatures are there in the first place. The dragon only attacked them in the first place, because someone had taken the golden horn that Beowulf gave her. Which broke the pact she and Beowulf had. I liked Beowulf in the film better, because he was portrayed more as a epic hero. In the film he kills the dragon all by himself, without any help, and he sacrifices his arm in order to reach the dragons heart to kill him. Rather than in the poem, he gets hurt and Wiglaf kills the dragon.
When we turn to the second battle, things are a little different. For one thing, Grendel’s mother is not just acting out of hatred. She is seeking justice for her son’s death. She only kills one man – similar to the idea of a blood feud that Beowulf and his contemporaries would understand.
...atiently waits because she knows that the same person who slew her son would be coming after her as well. Beowulf’s pursuit of the mother is nothing more than another way to build his reputation because if he had slain Grendel and it got him such recognition, slaying both ogre’s would raise his reputation tremendously thus bringing him even closer to his name being secured on the cover of the history book. Him going after Grendel’s mother has nothing or very little to do with the fact that she is a woman, it however has everything to do with the fame he would get and the respect that would be associated with his name.
The second encounter occurs when Grendel’s mother comes to avenge her son. While still embodying the quality of evil, she more specifically represents revenge. “His mother moreover, [e]ager and gloomy was anxious to go on [h]er mournful mission, mindful of vengeance [f]or the death of her son” (Beowulf, book 20 lines 26-29.) When Beowulf was swimming down to her lair, Grendel’s mother quickly swam out and attacked him, dragging him deep into her cave. The attack went on for several minutes before Beowulf found a way to successfully defeat the revenge-seeking
Beowulf looked over on the wall next to them and saw a magnificent sword hanging on the wall adorned with beautiful carvings, it was blessed with magic. No normal man could ever have lifted that sword, but Beowulf was no normal being. He waited for the right moment to go and retrieve the sword, and when he found the perfect opportunity and he ran straight towards the wall. He pulled the sword down with great force and began running towards Grendel’s mother. Beowulf took in a deep breath as he leaned back and heaved the sword forward. Beowulf had sliced straight through Grendel’s mother’s scaly neck, blood began to pour everywhere and he heard her bones cracking as the sword passed through her.