Beowulf Compared to The Thirteenth Warrior Essay

Beowulf vs. Bulvine

Only Hollywood can take fantasy and have people question the reality of the story. In the movie, The Thirteenth Warrior, they have taken the fiction, epic poem, Beowulf, and made the monsters, heroes, and situations real. However, there is still likeness in the two stories.

One main similarity between the movie and the story (and probably the most important) is the element of an epic hero whom dies after saving his people. In the movie, Bulvine is cut with a poisonous claw by Grendels mom, shortly before decapitating her. He is able to fight one more battle against Grendels tribe, and then dies after winning the combat from the venom. In the poem, translated by Seamus Heaney, Beowulf dies after slaying a dragon from a lethal, dragon-bite to the neck.

Even though the movie is based on the story of Beowulf, The Thirteenth Warrior still leaves a few events out and adds some occurrences. The most important is the lack of mythological/religious creatures attacking. In the cinematic adventure, multiple not-so-evolved people were attacking the Danes. Grendel, instead of being the demon in the poem, was the chief of the tribe in the movie. It also out-casted the entire dragon slaying sequence.

The movie and the text both have their strengths and weaknesses. The movie is obviously easier to follow, but the leading role is played by Antonio Bendaras, and he isnt even the main hero. In reality, would a warrior, such as Bulvine, allow a foreigner, whom he hardly knew, get so much stardom and credit? Also, using such a strange actor, like Bendaras, in the movie was a distraction from the original storyline. On the other hand, the movie did mention and refer to Norse-Paganism as Beowulfs religion, opposed to the poem insisting that the Vikings were looking into the future of Christianity. In the poem, despite the side-stories and seemingly pointless, repeated speeches of Beowulfs victories, the graphic and gory details of the fights were very interesting and kept the reader on the edge of their seat. But in the end, the movie is more effective then the text. Because of todays busy society, everything must be easy to do and easy to understand. And thats exactly what the movie did and exactly what the poem lacks.

The motion picture, The Thirteenth Warrior and Seamus Heaneys translated version of Beowulf have many similarities and differences. Both have little bumps and detours, but finally gets to the end, leaving a mark on the watcher and/or reader.