Collision Of Religions In Beowulf

1334 Words6 Pages
The Culture Collision of Religions as displayed in Beowulf Tale The Anglo-Saxons were Pagans when they came to Britain, but as time passed, they all gradually converted to Christianity. These two totally different cultures of Christian and Pagan alike clashed, and Christianity came out the victor in the end. In the epic Beowulf, these Christian values are displayed plentifully throughout the story. Though in the 2005 movie, Beowulf & Grendel, however, the film’s hostility towards Christianity is distracting and confusing as it strays from the original script, not acknowledging the Christian values that are present in the poem. Through both the differences in character portrayals and the prejudice against Christianity made obvious by the filmmakers, Beowulf and the movie Beowulf & Grendel are truly two different results of a cultural collision. The epic poem of Beowulf and its culture displays a noticeable theme over the book, a paradigm in which all things are represented as good and evil. “A shadow from under the pale moon he moved, That fiend from hell, foul enemy of God,” Grendel, is…show more content…
The novel does not give Grendel a back story to show why he hates joyous celebration and attacks Heorot Hall. This resorts back to the paradigm of good and evil. Grendel is simply an evil creature that does not tolerate joyous celebration. The movie tried to get away from the ‘good and evil’ paradigm trying to make Grendel more humanistic. But in doing so, necessary actions were taken to make people less human, drawing Grendel and humans closer. In the movie, the added character Selma has “relations” with Grendel and at the end of the film later has his child and raises him. Although it may seem distasteful to the audience and viewers, it serves as a connecting point in order to make Grendel seem more human and relatable

More about Collision Of Religions In Beowulf

Open Document