Grendel

[EiriktheScald]

And they missed a perfect opportunity! Beowulf actually goes on to fight a dragon! I think it kills him, IIRC, but nobody said it needed a happy ending.

 

But Naegling broke, it failed in the battle,

The blade of Beowulf, ancient and gray.

It was not his lot that edges of iron

Could help him in battle; his hand was to strong,

Overtaxed, I am told, every blade with its blow.

Though he bore a wonderous hard weapon to war,

No whit the better was he thereby!

 

A third time then the terrible scather,

The monsterous dragon inflamed with the feud,

Rushed on the king when the opening offered,

Fierce and flaming: fastened its fangs

In Beowulf's throat; he was bloodied with gore;

His life-blood streamed from the welling wound.

 

It was Wiglaf who remained by Beowulf's side to fight under the shield of his lord. Wiglaf repaid with a stout sword thrust; and Beowulf, with ebbing strength, drew his dagger and cut the dragon in half.

 

Quoting Charles Kennedy, "The tragic glory of Beowulf's death is its illustration of that fated courage which fights to the utmost, knowing the utmost will not wholly avail, yet fighting on."

[Miloch]

...Beowulf, with ebbing strength, drew his dagger and cut the dragon in half.

Gotta love that bit of realism. Even better than the Franks in the Song of Roland cleaving plate-armoured Moors (and their horses) in half during mounted combat:

When the Count Roland sees Samson thus laid low

Well may you guess how he is grieved of soul.

He spurs his horse and speeds to smite the foe

With Durendal, more worth than finest gold.

By might and main the Baron deals the stroke

Full on the helm that is all gemmed with gold;

The skull he splits, byrny and breast are broke,

Cloven the saddle, that is all gemmed with gold;

Through the beast's back deep down the weapon goes;

Like it or leave it, he has destroyed them both.

[berelinde]

Maybe it was a very small dragon...

[EiriktheScald]

Or a very big dagger!

 

[Edit:] I fell for that one, didn't I?

[Miloch]

From the descriptions, the dragon doesn't sound that small - coiling about its tower, glowing in the dark sky, being able to fry a shield (a wooden one, no doubt, but still...). Oddly though, they break two swords (Beowulf's and Wiglaf's) fighting the dragon, but Beowulf is able to cut the dragon in half with a dagger.

And Beowulf drew

His battle-sharp dagger: the blood-stained old king

Still knew what he was doing. Quickly, he cut

The beast in half, slit it apart.

"Quickly" too! Man never fileted a fish so handily. But what do you expect from a man who could supposedly rend a beast bigger and stronger than a human limb from limb. Gotta love the old epics. The bigger the lie, the better the story, and the more well-respected was the poet (maybe an idea for Eirik? ).

[Miloch]

So I guess Angelina Jolie plays Grendel's mother in the latest Beowulf adaptation. And if that's not enough, I guess there's a game (Xbox ) in the works, featuring a "virtual nude" Angelina:

Beowulf's narrative designer Gabrielle Shrager revealed that there was "no way around" including nudity in the game, which has been awarded a 15 rating by the BBFC.

 

She said: "There is much sexual innuendo in the game, because the faustian character who is Grendel's mother goes about getting you to sign the dirty deal with her by using her extremely tempting body. So you have that aspect of it and there's definitely no way around it. It's a very, very important part of it."

Did these people even read any of Beowulf? I thought Grendel and his mother were trolls or a similar sort of beast. Oh well, might be good eye candy at least...

[Elfen Lied]

Did these people even read any of Beowulf? I thought Grendel and his mother were trolls or a similar sort of beast

 

they are, but trolls arent known for wearing clothes, or are they?

[Miloch]

but trolls arent known for wearing clothes, or are they?

Perhaps not, but I don't think they're known for looking like Angelina Jolie either .

[Simbriant]

Highlander II was better.

 

OMG that must have been horrible then.

 

I kind of liked the Thirteenth Warrior. It was kind of like Beowulf meets the Predator.

 

And it had Antonio Banderas.

 

I liked the Thirteenth Warrior. It is by no means an Accademy Award Winning Movie or anything, but it is decent to watch. I never understood why everyone was so harsh with it.

 

Btw, in the version of Beowulf with Christopher Lambert, did anyone notice that the opening title for Beowulf is done exactly the same as the Mortal Kombat movie?

[Elfen Lied]

Perhaps not, but I don't think they're known for looking like Angelina Jolie either .

 

No i suppose not. but when the make beowulf movies they seem to make the trolls rather human looking.

 

when i think troll i think DND troll, Warhammer Troll, hell even LOTR troll.

 

something that is almost non distinguishable from a human is not where my train of thought goes.

[Guest Guest]

And this latest adaptation uses a special technique of digitally enhanced live action. Anyone remember "A Scanner Darkly?" That film gave me a headache watching it.

[Gabrielle]

Thirteenth Warrior was awesome. Lots of hot men.

 

I see Beowulf already sucks. Whats with the ugly computer generated characters? How lame. Live action movies thank you.

[BigRob]

CG is so overused in films these days... I mean, even George Lucas with all the wizardry available to him couldn't make a CG clone trooper look decent close up, so why does everyone else think they can get away with it?

 

The LotR (and Walking with Dinosaurs) philosophy of CG at a distance, practical close up works so much better.

 

Perhaps not, but I don't think they're known for looking like Angelina Jolie either .

 

No i suppose not. but when the make beowulf movies they seem to make the trolls rather human looking.

 

In Norse legend, trolls were pretty close to human, and half-breeds were known to exist. I'm not exactly sure, but they were somewhere between a human and a giant in terms of stature, larger, hairier and stronger (race memory of the neanderthals perhaps?) than humans, but built much the same.

[Miloch]

(race memory of the neanderthals perhaps?)

Unlikely - neanderthals were short, stocky humanoids, much like the conception of dwarves in literature and fantasy. Though it is this premise Michael Crichton uses for the book the 13th Warrior was based on (one I have problems with due to his erroneous depiction of neanderthals, though otherwise the book is good).

 

There are other larger proto-humans in the fossil record... Cro-magnon stood over two meters tall, but was more slender... perhaps like elves.

 

By most accounts, trolls were fairly monstrous creatures though, like ogres and giants. But I suppose, more like humans than Shrek or the green rubbery DnD troll. Certainly I don't remember Grendel's mother being a "faustian character" who gets Beowulf to "sign the dirty deal with her by using her extremely tempting body." The closest thing is she sits on him at one point while trying to drive a dagger through his chainmail.

[BigRob]

Unlikely - neanderthals were short, stocky humanoids, much like the conception of dwarves in literature and fantasy.

That's true, but I was thinking in a distorted way, as in "Hairy men of great strength" becomes "Hairy men of great strength, oh and they were huge too!". The height of our ancestors back then wouldn't have been much greater then theirs, what with the lifestyle they had (the average height of humans even a couple of hundred years ago was pretty short). Of course, their height could also have been distorted down too, so they might have spawned both dwarf and troll legends, if they were confused with the Cro-magnons.

 

 

 

By most accounts, trolls were fairly monstrous creatures though, like ogres and giants. But I suppose, more like humans than Shrek or the green rubbery DnD troll. Certainly I don't remember Grendel's mother being a "faustian character" who gets Beowulf to "sign the dirty deal with her by using her extremely tempting body." The closest thing is she sits on him at one point while trying to drive a dagger through his chainmail.

Ah, yeah, I do seem to recall Grendel's mother's basic reaction to Beowulf involved a lot of violence. I think the director was just relying on the fact that Angelina hadn't read the saga to get her kit off.