In Denmark, during the 6th century, Danish king Hrothgar and his warriors kill a troll whose son, Grendel, vows revenge.In Denmark, during the 6th century, Danish king Hrothgar and his warriors kill a troll whose son, Grendel, vows revenge.In Denmark, during the 6th century, Danish king Hrothgar and his warriors kill a troll whose son, Grendel, vows revenge.
- Awards
- 1 win & 6 nominations
- Grendel
- (as Ingvar E. Sigurdsson)
- Wealtheow
- (as Steinunn Ólína Thorsteinsdóttir)
- Erik
- (as Gísli Örn Gardarsson)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaIn 1731, the original manuscript that the movie is based on was severely damaged by fire, along with several other medieval writings, in London UK.
- GoofsAt 1:30:25, when Beowulf enters the cave on the beach you can see an orange extension cord in the bottom right corner of the screen.
- Quotes
Beowulf: Has this thing, this troll, killed any children?
King Hrothgar: No.
Beowulf: Women?
[Hrothgar shakes his head]
Beowulf: Old men?
King Hrothgar: What are you saying? That he fights with a clean heart? He kills the strongest first. He shows us he can kill the strongest. Who cares if he spares the children? They'll die anyway without fathers.
Beowulf: My wits still war with how this all began.
King Hrothgar: Hate for the mead hall. I can only guess. The night we finished it the foul creep came.
Beowulf: So, nothing was done to the troll itself?
King Hrothgar: Oh, Beowulf, it's a fucking troll! Maybe someone looked at it the wrong way.
Beowulf: Some Dane?
King Hrothgar: ...I never begged anyone to come here. Take on our fight. I don't hold you here.
Beowulf: I know you don't.
King Hrothgar: Then don't sour my heart with talk about why a troll does what a fucking troll does!
- ConnectionsFeatured in Wrath of Gods (2006)
Anglo-Saxon poetry is alliterative, haunting, sad, and in a language utterly unlike modern English, completely strange. Here's how the poem begins, with translations for each line.
(You will have to look elsewhere, because the format of this website does not allow foreign languages.)
Which has been translated:
LO, praise of the prowess of people-kings of spear-armed Danes, in days long sped, we have heard, and what honor the athelings won! Oft Scyld the Scefing from squadroned foes, from many a tribe, the mead-bench tore, awing the earls. Since erst he lay friendless, a foundling, fate repaid him: for he waxed under welkin, in wealth he throve, till before him the folk, both far and near, who house by the whale-path, heard his mandate, gave him gifts: a good king he!
Along comes a movie, which doesn't have much US distribution but is currently showing in New York (July 2006). And I'm told there was a version with Christopher Lambert, but I have not seen it.
There are many translations but one by a poet of distinction recently done is that of the Irish poet Seamus Heaney. Here are a couple of short passages from Heaney's version:
You have won renown: you are known to all men far and near, now and forever. Your sway is wide as the wind's
It is always better to avenge dear ones than to indulge in mourning. For every one of us, living in this world means waiting for our end. Let whoever can win glory before death. When a warrior is gone, That will be his best and only bulwark.
This atmosphere that comes in the poem, even from a few lines, the importance of fame, of reputation, a deep fatalism, a sense of the power of nature and overwhelming sadness, are typical of Beowulf and of Anglo-Saxon poetry. But whether you get any of that from the movie I don't know.
What you do get is plenty of cussing, of F-words and S-words, spoken even by King Hrothgar and Beowulf himself, and body functions, and sexual intercourse with a monster, who, for reasons best known to the filmmakers, is referred to as a "troll." Perhaps in Iceland a "troll" can be a giant, but in English the word has more often been used for a dwarf. Grendel isn't a dwarf. In the poem you don't see him clearly. He has scales. He's a monster. In the movie he's a big man who babbles incomprehensibly and has big muscles. He's like the Hulk.
It's rather unfortunate that Sarah Polley plays a witch, one who has intercourse literally with both troll and man. Everybody else has some sort of rustic English accent, but she speaks mall American. That doesn't work, and neither does her presence.
In the time of the Angles and the Saxons, the mead hall was a place for carousing, but also a semi holy place. Men got drunk and swore oaths, which they were bound to for life. The mead hall scenes are huge in Beowulf, but they just look like moments from any minor historical mélange here in this movie. Hrothgar's hall's structure is realistically represented from the outside, though.
The snowy Icelandic landscape has an austere beauty that is one of the best things about this movie.
Ingvar Sigurdsson as Grendel is impressive; but it would still be more evocative of the story and the poem not to see him clearly. Gerard Butler is dashing as Beowulf. But the way he talks! Stellan Skarsgård as King Hrothgar appears very beaten down; in the poem he is, indeed, depressed and presumably drunken, but somehow that is nobler in the mind than on the screen.
Whereas there's a lot of history -- epics are repositories of history -- in Beowulf the poem, in the movie things and people aren't explained very much. You get a rough idea, but explanation is almost totally omitted, even though every once in a while somebody in a boat speaks a few lines of poetry carrying the story forwrd.
The music by Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson is astonishing and powerful, though it isn't the sad, slow music of the Anglos-Saxon poem. This is of course an action movie. But there isn't quite enough action. It made me think of the wonderful example of dramatic narrative on film, which is so succinct and gripping and atmospheric, and which evokes an archaic time among Scandanavian peoples: Nils Gaup's 1987 Pathfinder/Ofelas, a Norwegian-Finnish production shot in the snow. Smashing. Find it and watch it.
- Chris Knipp
- Jul 6, 2006
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Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official site
- Languages
- Also known as
- Beowulf ve Grendel
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $68,820
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $4,360
- Jun 18, 2006
- Gross worldwide
- $92,076
- Runtime1 hour 44 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.78 : 1(original negative)
- 2.35 : 1