Beowulf is an epic poem written a long time ago. The 13th Warrior is pretty much a movie based on Beowulf but not exactly. The two pieces of literature both shared a lot of differences and similarities as well. The 13th Warrior offered a more realistic, believable, and more understanding of the epic tale of Beowulf. It’s a short story covering the bases of a triumphant hero battling three supernatural monsters. But there had a lot of theatrical remake of the original story; it provides us with the barbaric cannibalistic tribe of the Wendols, which were creatures of the mist.
Both the epic Beowulf and the movie the 13th Warrior shared similarities and differences in the struggle of good versus evil. The Initial Situation of Beowulf is King Hrothgar and the Danes are at the mercy of the marauding demon Grendel, who keeps attacking Heorot Hall. A wild demon attacking a defenseless group of people? It’s time for a hero to come on the scene and put this to rights. The Conflict of Beowulf is a Geatish warrior, Beowulf, throws his armor and weapons aside and fights the demon Grendel in a wrestling match to the death.
Beowulf isn’t usually very subtle about these things. The Complication of Beowulf is Grendel’s mother shows up to avenge the death of her son. This is just the kind of frustrating thing that happens to you when you’re a heroic Geatish warrior. Here Beowulf is, going all-out and wrestling a demon to the death, and just when he think you’ve won and you have a few minutes to get drunk and celebrate, the demon’s mom comes along and is mad because you killed her kid. The Climax of Beowulf is back home in Geatland; Beowulf must defend his people against a marauding dragon.
Just when you think Beowulf is going to live happily ever after, he has to face his greatest challenge yet: a fifty-foot-long fire breather. The Suspense of Beowulf is Beowulf hangs out on the side of the dragon’s barrow, recalling his past glories and wondering if he’s going to die fighting the dragon. Beowulf hangs out for several hundred lines, talking about his past glories and wondering if he’s going to die while fighting the dragon. Still, it does help to build suspense, because it makes us wonder, too.
The Denouement of Beowulf is that Beowulf is mortally wounded, but manages to kill the dragon and win its hoard of treasure. Beowulf dies, but so does the dragon. After that, it’s obviously all downhill, so this is definitely the denouement. Finally the conclusion of Beowulf is the Geats give Beowulf a splendid funeral and prepare to be attacked by their neighbors. Beowulf is dead, and after mourning his death and celebrating his heroic deeds, the Geats look to the future. Of course, without his protection, it’s a pretty bleak future.
The movie and poem consist of a plenty of differences. But there were three main differences that came directly to mind. The first is the hero’s name differed, such as Beowulf which in the movie was consider Buliwulf. Wendol is the monster of evil which in the original poem his name was Grendol. The second difference that caught my attention is in the poem Grendol was one creature but the movie construed him as a group of possessed humans. The third thing is the hero of the story was very different. Things such as instead of 13 warriors Beowulf always fought alone.
Also in the movie Buliwulf battles Wendol’s mother before he actually killed Wendol. Which as in the poem Beowulf killed Grendol first then the mother. The battle between Buliwylf and the dragon happened soon after the battle with Wendol, but in actuality Beowulf don’t actually fight the dragon until 50 years later. The death of Buliwulf was poisoning and he died young, but in the poem Beowulf dies old and from a slash to the throat from the dragon he battled. Even though there are a lot of differences they also had a few similarities.
One of them was the point that in the poem and movie Beowulf or Buliwulf died and they died as a king. They were similar to some of the characters, battles, events, and the terminations. The battle events of Beowulf and 13th Warrior are comparable. In both Beowulf and his followers seek for an entrance into the monster’s home to kill the mother and Wendol or Grendol seek for Buliwylf location as well. They both ended with Wendol and his mother dyeing. In conclusion Buliwylf or Beowulf died as a king.
In my opinion, I had the thought of Beowulf being a very boring literature story that I was forced to read because I’m a senior. But overall I enjoyed the poem. Yes it was kind of hard to read and comprehend due to the Anglo-Saxon literature. As far as the movie ‘13th Warrior” I really enjoyed because I’m such a visual learner. Even though the movie was somewhat different in names and kind of out of order I was still able to understand and point out the different events from the poem. So due to this watching this movie really enhanced my knowledge about Beowulf.
