azrael910 wrote:
There are christian references in Beowulf (grendel being a descendent of Cain), but there is plently of taditional folklore as well. It's highly unlikely those references were there if the story is older than christianity's presence in the region (which is unknown).
Ever since I read some of 1001 Arabian Nights with all the "Praise Allah!" and such in it I've wondered about what stories have been edited for "acceptability" and how much.
Like I said, my issue isn't that they altered Beowulf - it's that they're billing it as the original as we know it when it very clearly isn't. The dramatic license they've taken is far too extreme and compromises nearly every aspect of the original tale.
Yea... they probably should have named it "Beospartan and the Angela Boobs" or something.
Thanks!
After reading those, the stuff at the first link pretty much was my guess as to what drove some of the plot changes. I do remember the poem being sort of disjoint and boring. Hero kills monster... duh... not very sophisticated by modern plot complexity standards. I assumed they had done stuff to try to bring it more up to "spec" but it wasn't that convincing really and still came off a bit dull. I went in with pretty low expectations though so came out feeling like it was pretty good. Then again I did see it in 3D, so maybe I just thought the 3D was cool.
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