Beowulf and Grendel:

Beyond the Hero-Myth

Klaeber’s Beowulf, an immense, scholarly study of the heroic Scandinavian legend of the German Iron Age, is only a small indication of the vast wealth of criticism and research available for students of this epic poem. Beowulf is one of the greatest literary treasures of the early Heroic tradition. A single, surviving manuscript was copied by monks sometime around A.D. 1000, shortly before the original was destroyed in a monastery fire. Although the actual date of authorship is assumed to be c. A.D. 800, it was written to portray a fictional version of a more ancient period. The poet, however, asserted his own Christian values in spiritual sway over the Pagan religion that history tells us actually prevailed during the time of the poem.

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Beowulf is a classic hero-myth narrative, bearing all of the traits of the pre-medieval warrior cultures of Northern Europe. It’s narrative structure can be perfectly fitted into modern diagrams of the “hero’s journey.” It has inspired numerous translations, movies, folklore and fairy tales in the ages since it was first penned, most of which literary offspring closely follow the original myth in structure and meaning.

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However, a recent film directed by Sturla Gunnarsson all but re-creates the original story, bringing to modern audiences a timely, relevant modern myth in which the hero becomes a student of the villain, and the villain, though he still dies, is given some degree of redemption. In addition, Gunnarsson’s version removes the stigma associated with Paganism in the original manuscript and replaces it with a more accurate image of ancient culture. The only Christian influence in this film comes from the entertaining antics of a mildly insane Celtic priest who is plagued by epileptic seizures at inopportune moments. Gunnarsson doesn’t allow genuine ridicule or derision of the Christian faith to seep into his story, but he does present a decidedly Pagan aspect of the daily life of the Danes that is probably a far more accurate picture of the culture from which the story is drawn.

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By far the most interesting and profound changes Gunnarsson introduces in his version of the great epic center around the relationship between Grendel and Beowulf, as well as the nature of the beast himself. Much of this change is carried out through the individual relationships of Beowulf and Grendel to the outcast Swedish witch Selma. Through her, Grendel’s guttural utterings are translated to Beowulf, generating a strange bond of communication between the two enemies that elicits enormous sympathy toward Grendel from the viewing audience.

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In the original poem, the Danish King, Hrothgar, builds a great drinking hall in which his warriors, his people, travelers, and visiting dignitaries can feast, drink and sing. Grendel, a hateful, evil being who lives on the nearby moor becomes irritated by the noises of the revelers and begins to visit the hall every night, killing 30 warriors on the first night, and again on the second. This continues for twelve years before Beowulf arrives.

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Gunnarsson’s treatment begins with a scene intended to establish the right of Grendel to a happy Troll life: he is pictured very young, out on the moor playing with his Troll Father who is depicted as a strong, protective, caring being. The father hears Hrothgar and his warriors approaching and runs with Grendel to the edge of a cliff. Hrothgar catches up with them and brutally murders the father. He spares the young Grendel, however, who walks to the bottom of the cliff where his father has fallen and attempts to wake him. Eventually, Grendel matter-of-factly accepts his father’s death, hacks off his head with great effort, and cradles it protectively in arms as he walks away down the beach. The viewer is next taken to the cave of the adult Grendel who crouches before the mummified skull of his father’s head and moans in almost ritualistic grief and agony. Gunnarsson thus establishes Grendel’s legitimate right to revenge, or at least to the sympathy of the audience, before introducing the first night in which Grendel kills most of the warriors sleeping in the Mead Hall.

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In all of his visits to Hrothgar’s Hall, Grendel never kills Hrothgar, sparing him in a similar fashion to the way Hrothgar spared him. Grendel’s visits torment Hrothgar, who must watch as all of his beloved and noble family of warriors are slaughtered. This part of the film is in line with the poem. However, Gunnarsson continues to use cinematic rendering and storytelling to provide the dramatic imagery and character development that sets his Grendel apart from the mindlessly evil beast of the epic. In the film, Grendel has a humanistic personality, his methods are logical and intelligent, planned and objectively executed. Indeed, it is almost as if Grendel represents some kind of ordered design and Hrothgar rules over a land of chaos in which he and his warriors must submit nightly to the wages of their original sin against an innocent.

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Gunnarsson continues to develop the nobility of Grendel upon the arrival of Beowulf and his band of Goats, for Grendel refuses to engage Beowulf. He will not kill the Geats because his argument is not with them – they have not yet wronged him. Grendel’s character is endowed with a terrible, but noble, sense of honor that escapes Beowulf’s perception until he encounters Selma. Selma advises Beowulf that Grendel is not what he seems and that Beowulf’s mission lacks heroic nobility because he has come to kill one who has done him no wrong.

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In contrast to the film, the poem indicates that a mindless Grendel attacks the Geats on their first night in the hall, whereupon Beowulf rips off Grendel’s arm. This event also occurs in the film, but at a much later point in the story after Beowulf has had numerous confrontations with Grendel and Selma. It follows an episode in which one of Beowulf’s Geats discovers the head of Grendel’s father and destroys it. Upon discovering this abominable act, Grendel smells the bone fragments, identifying the perpetrator’s odor. That night he goes to the Mead Hall and kills only the Geat who destroyed his father’s skull.

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However, the other Geats awaken, along with Beowulf, and attack Grendel. He kills some of them, but tries to escape. Beowulf rigs a trap that malfunctions, restraining Grendel by his arm. Grendel is in a position to kill Beowulf, but chooses instead to sever his own appendage, in effect, killing himself. The sacrificial nature of his act is not lost on Beowulf, who finally understands that Grendel is not pure evil and confronts Hrothgar about the origin of the feud between Hrothgar and Grendel.

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Before Beowulf can right the wrong his men have done, or face Grendel’s merciful sacrifice, Grendel’s mother storms to the Hall to take revenge for the death of her son. Beowulf follows her to the cave where Grendel lies in state and defeats her. As he is leaning over Grendel’s body to make some sort of peace, he notices a very young troll in the shadows. The viewer is invited to speculate on the repetition of the archetypes in this story, but is also immediately aware that Grendel, even in unjust death, is something of a noble hero – he has fathered a child who will watch over him as he did over his own father.

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Before leaving the Danes, Beowulf takes Grendel’s body onto the beach and erects a large burial mound of black stones over him, stopping for a time to honor him. As he is sailing away with his surviving Geats, he sees the witch Selma standing on shore with her arms around the Troll child, and understands that she is the mother. The sacrifice of the innocents is complete in this picture, for the viewer understands now that Grendel’s violence was only a small part of his story – he was a father, loved by both his son and the witch with whom he had slept but once and protected thereafter.

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Gunnarsson’s filmic version of the poem is a reversal of cultural status quo’s: the core of society becomes the heart of evil and the outcast and marginal are the innocent doomed. It is a picture of the traditional hero whose heroic identity is thrown into question, who enters the story as a savior and exits as a penitent murderer. The film is a strong social commentary that questions the perceptions, judgments, and conclusions of modern society, the qualifications and moral fortitude of its heroes, and its rush to follow a social standard at the expense of genuine civility and independent thinking.