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Differences Between Beowulf And Grendel

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We, humans have advanced quite a great deal through time with technology, architecture, and even through our ideals. In the Beowulf the epic (Heaney 2000), we see right and wrong through the eyes of the past and it is strange to say the least. The author wrote this for their intended audience, meaning they were reflecting the cultural values of the ancient Anglo-Saxons. In the movie, Beowulf and Grendel (Gunnarsson 2005), we see changes from the original work that seems to match to modern ideas of right and wrong. Two characters, Hrothgar and Grendel, one who was a man of the light and kin of the dark respectively, changed to match the ideals we hold today into completely different people that we had known them to be. In the epic, Hrothgar …show more content…

If it killed men and was unnatural they would kill anything if it fit the quota. Though the movie gave us something to think about, “Why? Why does Grendel kill?”. Unable to replicate the book they added in characters such as Selma the witch and Grendel’s father. Grendel’s father is the reason why everything started and why Grendel sets onto his path of vengeance. Forced to watch his own father die before him, leaving him with nightmares as indicated with Selma, “His name means grinder… Of teeth.” Troubled by terrible dreams, he terrorized the man who slew his father, Hrothgar. All through the movie, we thought Grendel to be the wrongful creature because of the men he murdered, but we had an inkling of doubt. As stated before, Hrothgar states why he killed Grendel’s father and suddenly we knew, Grendel was justified by his terror. He was just a terrified child angry at the man killed his father leaving him an orphan. Selma sees through all of this and sees the fearful child after living in the woods for so long. She can see that not everything was right and not everything was

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