"I. AM. BEOWULF!" -Beowulf

Well that movie sucked. Regardless of how cool, accurate, or impressive the computer animated-ness of it was, the medieval accuracy of Beowulf was, in my opinion, sub par to say the least.

But, instead of dogging the film further, I shall focus on (the only) two aspects of the film that were commendable from my perspective. Both of them are in regards to Grendel, the first being his representation (physical, emotional) and the second being the apparent shadiness surrounding his lineage.

First, I do admit when Grendel first debuted I did not expect him to appear as he did. Standing in Hrothgar's animated mead hall in (essentially) the flesh and bone is not at all as I imagined him. From the textbook and Mr. Heaney's translations, the image of some dark, animal-ish creature was ingrained in my head and has been since our time with the epic poem. However, I believe the way the animators depicted Grendel in the film actually worked to their benefit...

So, if you can't recall what the animated Grendel looked like, see below.

Now, despite the expression he is making... does he look as demonic as the poem makes him sound? In fact, whom does he most resemble? That's right, us (in fact, me on most Monday mornings). But seriously, because the animators decided to have Grendel look like humans (only, in a more zombie-ish form) I think the symbolic point is clearly made. Although he is often characterized as an external villain that we must destroy in the world, he may just be the internal villain we keep alive in ourselves.

As I watched the movie, I couldn't help but feel bad for him. As we found out in the film, he's being forced to do his mothers doing and, subsequently, has to endure great physical pains (spears, knives, and men flying at full speed toward him, his arm getting chopped off by a steel door). We can examine Grendel's misfortunes all we want, however I think the questions "Why did Grendel have to endure these misfortunes and why did he attack Hrothgar's hall  in the first place?" are much more interesting.

If you watched carefully, there were a few moments where characters had lines that just seemed awkward and out of place in the grand scheme of things (like when Hrothgar says that thing about Grendel's mother being Beowulf's burden now or when, after Beowulf kills Grendel, he says he has no sons and gives the crown to him [Beowulf]). However, having read this scholarly article a few months back I think I knew exactly what they were getting at. I'll spare you the task of reading the article for yourself and just boil it down to this: Hrothgar and Grendel's mother were somehow related and ended up having Grendel incestuously. TWIST, right? I don't know enough about this family tree business to say much more about the issue but I wanted to bring it up because I thought it was fascinating AND logically sound.



Overall movie rating: 1.5/5 starz

Image citation (sorry if this is incorrect, the blog is in Icelandic or something and I can't differentiate between the name of the blog and the name of the Author...)

SÖk I DENNA. “Loke". Photograph. Hedniska Tankar. Wordpress. N.d., Web. 18 Dec. 2013.