![]() ![]() And at last, the fact that the poet tries to convey an idealistic message in the attractive wrapping of entertainment is not unlike what countless Hollywood productions do and have done for years. And, as in a film, rather implausible information is often not directly presented to the reader, but a character in the text is made to believe it, which makes it then easier for the reader to accept it as well – for example, when Hrothgar’s court is convinced of Beowulf’s heroism through the debate with Unferth. The poem opens and closes with a funeral scene, which provides a visual and thematic frame. Flashbacks provide exposition at the exact moment it is needed. Also narrative techniques that are now common in film are used. The poet’s powerful language gives action-packed moments a cinematic quality: when Beowulf fights Grendel, for example, we are given a poetic close-up of how Grendel’s arm painfully begins to separate from his body, and we imagine hearing the sound effects of sinews splitting and bones grinding. It has a clearly defined setting, a well-balanced action-dialogue ratio, and a charismatic protagonist. ![]() It then goes on to verify this theory by a case study of the two films mentioned.Īt first sight, Beowulf has qualities which make it very suitable for being adapted on film. This essay considers which elements of the Beowulf poem are least compatible with contemporary screenplay patterns and likely to be changed. Ultimately, though, an antiquated text like Beowulf requires specific modifications to conform to modern screenwriting conventions – a necessary transition process to tailor the text for the cinematic genre. There are numerous aspects, ranging from contemporary tastes and director’s intentions to marketability, which affect the way an adapted text is transformed into a screenplay. However, they do so not without major configurations of plot and narrative structure of the original. But that the poem’s subject matter is still considered suitable entertainment for a modern audience is suggested by the releases of two recent large scale films (which came out in a surprisingly short succession) – Sturla Gunnarsson’s Beowulf & Grendel and Robert Zemeckis’ Beowulf – adapting the epic. Of course, this idealistic message is somewhat obsolete today: the days when bravery in combat and recklessness in life-threatening adventure were the highest virtues are over. I use the word ‘audience’ deliberately here, not only because the poem was originally performed before a group rather than read by individuals, but also to include audiovisual adaptations and interpretations of the text, because these (especially films) have a greater potential than any scholarly study to fulfil the purpose the original author had in mind when he composed the poem: to reach and entertain as wide an audience as possible, so as to have his message conveyed and understood by many. If we were to find the truly exceptional quality of Beowulf, however, we might regard it less as an object of scholarly study than as a piece of literature that has entertained audiences even longer than it has intrigued scholars. Proof of the exceptional nature of the epic poem Beowulf in world literature is often sought in the continuing scholarly interest in the text over two centuries and the tremendous canon of secondary literature the work has inspired. The last section of the essay analyses two example films, Beowulf & Grendel (2005) and The Legend of Beowulf (2007) and how they tackle this problem. ![]() It argues that the narrative structure of the Anglo-Saxon text demands significant modifications to match the pattern of a modern-day film script. This essay examines the problem of transforming the epic poem Beowulf into a commercially viable screenplay. ![]()
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