Beowulf and Grendel (2005)

Masarykova univerzita Filozofická fakulta Katedra anglistiky a amerikanistiky Bakalářská diplomová práce 2020 Nikola Krčová Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Nikola Krčová The Depiction of Beowulf in Film and Television Series Adaptations Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: prof. Mgr., Milada Franková, CSc., M.A. 2020 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Author’s signature I would like to thank my family for supporting me and sharing their opinions with me. I would also like to thank my supervisor prof. Mgr. Milada Franková, CSc., M.A., for her guidance. Table of Contents Introduction........................................................................................................................... 1 The Original Story of Beowulf............................................................................................. 4 Beowulf and Grendel (2005)............................................................................................... 13 Beowulf (2007).................................................................................................................... 19 Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands (2016)......................................................................... 25 Conclusion........................................................................................................................... 31 Bibliography........................................................................................................................ 33 Summary............................................................................................................................. 35 Resumé................................................................................................................................ 36 Introduction In the past, one of the most popular past-time activities was reading, however, now when new technologies became available, reading moved more towards watching television. Watching films and television is a very important form of entertainment that allows the audience to experience and feel things through the characters. As the Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic Roger Ebert puts it, “We live in a box of space and time. Movies are windows in its walls. They allow us to enter other minds, not simply in the sense of identifying with the characters, although that is an important part of it, but by seeing the world as another person sees it.” As a result, people search for films with situations that they might not necessarily find themselves in, with the intention to experience what it would feel like to be in somebody else’s shoes. A perfect example of this situation that a person would not experience otherwise is the role of a hero whose job is to slay monsters and protect the mankind from them. Beowulf is a heroic epic poem about a hero whose quest is to save the king and his subjects from an evil monster. At the end of the story, Beowulf fights against a dragon, which is a very popular character in fantasy books and films. People are attracted to this type of plot-driven adventurous heroic story and that is why several filmmakers decided it would be a good idea to adapt the story and make a film or television series out of it. However, the story itself is not sufficient enough to make a popular and successful movie. Some aspects and motifs have to be added by the filmmakers in order for the audience to want to see the adaptation. One of the most popular themes of a film that people can relate to is love. The original story does not contain this theme but in almost all the adaptations, 1Beowulf has a love interest and the story contains a love storyline. Another added aspect is the development of backgrounds of some characters. People like to empathize with the characters they see on their screens and for this reason, in several film adaptations, some character traits are emphasized and some characters’ backgrounds are explored in order to get to know the characters better. The liberties that film producers have taken in the adaptations of the story of Beowulf and their cultural significance is the subject of this thesis. An important source for the acquisition of valuable information about some of the later mentioned adaptations is Hans Sauer’s 205 Years of Beowulf Translations and Adaptations (1805-2010): A Bibliography. In his work Sauer lists all the adaptations made between the years 1805 and 2010. This list provides information about the variety of the adaptations and some possible film options for the analysis. He also mentions some other adaptations of Beowulf, not only film adaptations, but game, music, play and other depictions as well. Seamus Heaney’s award-winning translation of Beowulf is valuable to the thesis mainly because of his Introduction, in which he writes in depth about crucial scenes and themes in the story. Both Kathleen Forni’s book Beowulf‘s Popular Afterlife in Literature, Comic Books, and Film and her article in Studies in Popular Culture are very valuable to the thesis since they contain some interesting ideas and comments about the adaptations and the popularity of Beowulf as a whole. Her ideas support some of my own and that is why her input is very useful. In the first chapter, there is an explanation of why is Beowulf such an important piece of work and why was it chosen for this thesis. It also contains a list of all the themes, symbols and motifs that are important and represent the core of the story. The next part of the thesis contains analysis of two films: Beowulf and Grendel from 2005 in the second chapter, and Beowulf from 2007 in the third chapter. Beowulf and Grendel was chosen because it is very similar to the original poem in terms of the setting, the genre and the overall atmosphere. However, it has a few differences that may yield insights into the adaptation strategies of its 2makers. Beowulf is the most well-known and popular adaptation of the poem since it contains violence and epic fight scenes. The film is similar in terms of the battles with the monsters and the heroic atmosphere, but the filmmakers made some big changes in the story, and the film contains a lot of differences in the plot. However, the extent of the adaptors’ deviation from the original story testifies to the variety of adaptation strategies of the modern media. The next and final chapter of the thesis analyzes a television series made in 2016 with Beowulf as a main protagonist that is called Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands. This adaptation is relevant because it shows the newest adaptation of Beowulf and what popular film aspects were added in contrast to the adaptations from the 2000s. The analysis aims to discover whether some crucial scenes from the poem are preserved or omitted in the new versions, and what popular film aspects were added in order for the film to be appealing to the audience. The goal of the thesis is to analyze the selected adaptations and, by looking at the differences and similarities between them and the original story, to explore the new strategies in adapting old literature in the current film industry. 3The Original Story of Beowulf In his translation of Beowulf, Seamus Heaney begins with a historical background of the poem which is very informative in its content and contributive to this thesis. Heaney reports that Beowulf is a heroic poem written in the Old English (or Anglo-Saxon) language and it is considered to be one of the foundations of English poetry. It was created between the seventh and the tenth century and the poem consists of more than three thousand lines. This masterpiece is nowadays read primarily in translation because of the changes that language underwent, and it is mostly read in schools and universities (Heaney ix). Because of its continuous use in school courses, it has become a classic, and it is hard to find a person that has not at least heard about the story of Beowulf. According to Heaney, “We know about the poem more or less by chance, because it exists in one manuscript only. This unique copy (now in the British Library) barely survived a fire in the eighteenth century and was then transcribed and titled, re-transcribed and edited, translated and adapted, interpreted and taught, until it has become an acknowledged classic” (Heaney x). Not every story survives so many alterations and adaptations but because Beowulf survived and the poem was still read after all the modifications, it became a true literary classic and a suitable piece of work for this thesis. Even though it was written in England, the story’s setting is in Scandinavia in the sixth century. Beowulf, a powerful warrior of the Geats, arrives with his men to the land of the Danes to help them defeat a monster called Grendel that has been terrorizing the King Hrothgar’s hall Heorot and killing his warriors for some time. Beowulf defeats the monster in a battle without using any weapon and tears his arm from his body, which then serves as a trophy. However, he then has to defend the hall from Grendel’s mother who comes seeking revenge for her son. She kills one of Hrothgar’s warriors and escapes, but Beowulf follows her to the lake where she lives and he defeats her there with a powerful sword that he finds in her cave. He severs Grendel’s head and brings it as another trophy to the hall. After his victories, he returns to his 4home country and rules there as king for fifty years. However, when a thief steals a golden cup from a dragon, the dragon attacks Beowulf’s kingdom and Beowulf in his old age has to defeat one more monster. Even though Beowulf kills it with the help of his friend Wiglaf, he dies in the battle as well, and the poem ends with Beowulf’s funeral and the Geats mourning the death of their beloved lord. It is important to name some themes, motifs, symbols and scenes that are significant in the poem in order to compare which elements were omitted and which were kept in the film adaptations and why. Firstly, one of the most important themes in the story is vengeance. It is the thing that motivates all the monsters to attack. Grendel attacks Heorot and the Danes inside of it because he wants to take revenge for them disrupting his sleep with their singing, which shows him how lonely and jealous he is. Grendel’s mother’s motive is more straight-forward because she seeks revenge for her son’s death. And the dragon’s rage and attacks were launched because he wanted revenge for the golden cup that was stolen from him. However, the monsters are not the only characters that are motivated by revenge. Beowulf is also driven by it as he wants to avenge all the Danes that have been cold-bloodedly killed by Grendel, and later in the story he seeks revenge against the dragon because of all the deaths he caused in Beowulf’s kingdom. It is an ongoing cycle and it seems that almost everyone in the story acts, at least to some degree, on vengeance. Another important theme in the poem is reputation and boasting that is connected with it. Beowulf is concerned with how the others see him and that is why he boasts and tells everybody about his achievements, victories and what he has been through in his life. When Unferth attacks Beowulf’s reputation during a feast, it is the worst thing he can do, because reputation is the most valuable thing to warriors as it is the only thing that survives even after they are dead. Beowulf then boasts about his good deeds and the real heroic story and diverts all the accusations that Unferth made. To even strengthen his reputation, Beowulf insists on 5fighting Grendel without weapons and later fighting the dragon alone without the help of his fellow warriors. This shows his pride as well as his desire for fame and a strong reputation. Faith is one of the most prominent themes in the poem. However, there is a debate among critics about the Christian references that appear in this pagan poem as there was no concept of Christian God in pagan Scandinavia at that time. In their book The Vikings, Nordeide and Edwards state that “. . . although written sources suggest that missionaries arrived earlier, Christianity was not established formally until towards the end of the Viking Age, that is the late tenth and early eleventh century” (Nordeide 13). This proves that there is no way that the Danes were Christians because the concept was introduced several centuries later. Beowulf is a pagan poem from start to finish, however, there are Christian elements embedded in the poem. The concept of Christianity was therefore probably added to the poem by its author as it was written in the eighth century England, which just converted to Christianity. Christianity is therefore very distinctive in the poem, but the Danes’ belief in their life depending on fate, which is a pagan concept, is prominent as well. While they pray to God and believe their victories are granted to them by him, they know their death is predetermined by fate. The Danes are generally portrayed as worshipers of God, but they have pagan rituals such as the sea burials where they set the dead body on fire. When they are at their lowest after Grendel attacks them, they turn to their pagan gods for help, instead of praying to God: “Sometimes at pagan shrines they vowed / offering to idols, swore oaths / that the killer of souls might come to their aid” (Heaney 8). According to Mary C. Wilson Tietjen, who wrote an article “God, Fate, and the Hero of ‘Beowulf’”, “The ideals, divine and human, of paganism and Christianity exist side by side in Beowulf. The poem contains concepts both of a blind and whimsical force whose dealings with men are unrelated to their merit, and of a benevolent Christian deity who affords grace and guidance to the worthy. Similarly, Beowulf himself is presented both as the pagan heroic ideal of the mighty and renowned warrior and as the Christian ideal of the virtuous hero 6who rightly attributes his special powers, and the deeds arising from those powers, to the grace of God” (Tietjen 161). This proves that both paganism and Christianity are prominent in the poem and the theme of faith should be captured in the adaptations as it is a significant part of Beowulf. Heaney mentions the first and probably the most important symbol in his Introduction to Beowulf. It is the king’s hall which shows the “warrior-culture” of the peoples while they attend ceremonies such as ring-giving, feasting and drinking mead. The veterans also share their tales of heroes from the past and motivate the young warriors to gain such success in the future (Heaney xv-xvi). Most of the scenes of the poem occur in the Heorot hall and therefore it is a crucial part and setting of the story. The warriors celebrate each victory and mourn each defeat in the hall. It is the gathering place of the warriors that is full of warmth and joy, and the only place where they feel safe along with their comrades. It is a contrast to the cold and cruel winter of Scandinavia outside the hall. It is a place for living, drinking, eating, sleeping, celebrating, as well as for counsel and strategic purposes. The hall represents the king, his power and wealth. Grendel knows that the hall is a comfortable space for the Danes and that is why he attacks them while they are inside. The place of safety becomes a place of terror and this transformation should be seen in the adaptations. Another important symbol in the story is gold and treasure. Heaney observes that “Gold is a constant element, gleaming solidly in underground vaults, on the breasts of queens or the arms and regalia of warriors on the mead-benches. It is loaded into boats as spoil, handed out in bent bars as hall-gifts, buried in the earth as treasure, persisting underground as an affirmation of a people’s glorious past and an elegy for it” (Heaney xvii). Gold appears many times in the story and it serves as an element of respect and gratitude. When a warrior dies, for example, they put golden jewelry on their boat to show their respect and gratitude to the warrior, and then they send it to the sea. Heroes and victorious warriors are given golden gifts by the king in the 7ceremony of ring-giving to show them gratitude for their loyalty. The more gold and treasure a warrior has, the more glorious and worthy he is. Their loyalty and success is always rewarded with gifts. When Beowulf passes the gifts he receives from Hrothgar to Hygelac, he shows his loyalty as well, and that is why loyalty and gold is so connected. A pile of golden jewelry and other ancient artifacts is guarded by the dragon, and Grendel’s mother keeps similar golden pile in her lair as well. The hall is described as being golden too. Gold therefore represents a significant motif in the story and should appear in the adaptations. The last important symbols are the three monsters. Each of them is different and each of them has a different motive for their attacks. They represent the evil in the story that must be defeated in order for the people to be safe and content again, and for the good to win over the evil. Grendel is the overall symbol of evil in the poem. He is described as a descendant of Cain, a biblical figure that betrayed his own brother, but he is also described as “a fiend out of hell” and “grim demon” (Heaney 6). Grendel is an outsider that lives in a swamp on the outskirts and lurks in the dark. He is jealous and lonely as he watches the warriors in the hall celebrating each night, and that is his reason to attack as he does not want to live quietly and lonely in the outskirts anymore. He is described as monstrous, man-eating creature that is “merciless” and that has “never showed remorse” (Heaney 7). Grendel’s arm is another symbol and it serves as a trophy, which is hung in the hall to celebrate his defeat. Grendel’s mother’s reason for attack is obvious. She is filled with grief and rage because they killed her son, and so she seeks vengeance. She lives in her under-water lair and is therefore portrayed as some kind of a humanoid sea-creature. The dragon is the mightiest of the monsters and an equal opponent to Beowulf in his old age. Heaney believes that he is “more a destiny than a set of reptilian vertebrae” (Heaney xix). He is a representation of Beowulf’s fate. Although Beowulf kills the dragon, he dies in the battle as well, and so his predetermined fate is fulfilled. The dragon also 8represents greed by his hoarding of the golden treasure for no purpose. His greed is also seen when he burns the whole village just because of one stolen cup. Beowulf’s funeral is the first crucial scene because it is the final scene in the poem and it leaves the readers with a melancholic feeling. It also shows that heroes can win wars and slay monsters, but they eventually have to die too. Heaney acknowledges that “Here the inexorable and the elegiac combine in a description of the funeral pyre being got ready, the body being burnt and the barrow being constructed . . . The Geat woman who cries out in dread as the flames consume the body of her dead lord . . .” (Heaney xxi). This excerpt shows the dreadful and horrible atmosphere of the ending of the poem and the sorrow of the people who mourn their lord’s death. This scene is incredibly important because it shows the ending of the central and the most important character of the poem and it is the most emotional scene as well. Beowulf’s death is almost as important as all of his good deeds during his life because the death is not only his, but it is also a death of the kingdom that cannot defend itself without its powerful lord. Since the fighting scenes are described in detail in the poem, it is a perfect opportunity for the filmmakers that choose to incorporate the battles to their adaptations to adapt them exactly or at least approximately the same. The first fight in the poem is with Grendel. When Grendel comes one night, most of the warriors are sleeping, but Beowulf is ready for the fight. He promised not to use any weapons and so he fights with just his bare hands. Grendel smashes the door open with just his touch and immediately kills and eats a man that sleeps on a bench. Beowulf then grips his hand with such power that he intimidates Grendel. They go through the wall of the hall while fighting and destroying everything in their way. Grendel howls and tries to escape. The Geats try to kill him by striking him with their swords but no blade can hurt him. Suddenly, Grendel starts to lose power, he loses his hand and he escapes with a death-causing wound. Beowulf then displays the arm in the hall. Next monster to be defeated is Grendel’s 9mother who comes seeking revenge after her son’s death. She attacks Heorot but is intimidated by the warriors, so she slaughters Hrothgar’s most trusted adviser Aeschere and takes his corpse with her. She also takes Grendel’s hand and escapes back to her lair. The next crucial fight begins when Beowulf comes to the monster’s lair. Unferth lends him his sword Hrunting, which has never failed him in battle. Beowulf dives into the lake and Grendel’s mother instantly grips him but his armor protects him. Sea creatures then attack him as well. He uses Hrunting to strike the monster in her head, but it fails him and does her no harm, so he fights with his bare hands. She tries to attacks him with a knife, but his armor protects him once again. Beowulf then discovers a huge ancient sword in her golden pile, and cuts her head off with it. He then cuts off Grendel’s head while the powerful swords melts. Beowulf brings back Grendel’s head and the sword’s hilt as trophies. The last fight is with the dragon, which is provoked when a thief steals a golden goblet from a hoard that the dragon guards resulting in the dragon’s anger and burning attacks on the kingdom. The dragon spits flames on him and Beowulf uses his sword to cut the creature, but his sword fails him and does no injury to the dragon. All the troops run away to safety but one warrior goes to help his lord – Wiglaf. The dragon heaves fire again and Beowulf’s sword fails him again. The dragon attacks for the third time and bites Beowulf in the neck. Wiglaf attacks the monster and sinks his sword into its belly. Beowulf draws a knife and stabs the dragon in its flank, delivering a fatal wound. Beowulf realizes that poison is running through his blood and his wound is swelling. Wiglaf cleans his lord with water but Beowulf knows he is close to his death and sends Wiglaf for the treasure. Wiglaf returns with the treasure and Beowulf dies. H. L. Rogers has an interesting idea in his article “Beowulf's Three Great Fights” in regards to the three fights. According to him, in each fight Beowulf needs more help from his troops, wears more armor and uses more weapons. When he fights against Grendel, he uses no weapons and armor and trusts in just his hands. He also does not need any help from his companions. Beowulf wears armor and has the sword Hrunting with him when he fights

Beowulf and Grendel (2005)

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