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Michael Crichton intertwined some aspects of Beowulf with his own thoughts to produce the drama, The 13 th Warrior. Beowulf, written down by an unnamed Christian monk in the 8 th century, served as a framework for the plot of The 13 th Warrior. Beowulf and The 13 th Warrior have many differences but the similarities that they share are more abundant through out the two pieces. Instead of doing a direct translation of Beowulf, the writer of the The 13 th Warrior used his creativity to fabricate a new story. To start off, The 13 th Warrior is seen through the eyes of Antonio Banderas character, Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan, while Beowulf told the story of Beowulf from a third person point of view. The protagonists, Beowulf (Beowulf), and Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan (The 13 th Warrior) are of different ethnic groups; Beowulf is Swedish and Ahmed is Arabic.
In The 13 th Warrior groups of men fight the evil which is in the form of men dressed up as bears, possibly to seem more frightening, and their mother, who is an evil witch. Beowulf generally fights the evil, which is represented by Grendel and his mother, who are both monsters, descendants of Cain, alone. The warriors of The 13 th Warrior and Beowulf, clearly, had incongruous reasons for fighting the bear men. Beowulf wanted to be famous and with fame comes fortune.
Beowulf was supercilious unlike the men in The 13 th Warrior. Ahmed and his comrades were not offered money or any reward; they did not, necessarily, want to be remembered for their heroic deeds at Herot; they just wanted to help save the villagers. Like Beowulf and Ahmed, Grendel and the bear men had incongruous reasons for attacking Herot. Every night the men of Beowulf would stay up late laughing, dancing, drinking; celebrating their greatness. Grendel grew weary of this night after night and eventually sought his revenge. Grendel attacked because he was impatient but the bear men of The 13 th Warrior had a completely different reason.
They were a fairly selfish group of men who wished to dominate other villages around them; therefore they attacked Herot, showing their power. The 13 th Warrior had to keep something in common with Beowulf in order to be acknowledged as being derived from the epic poem. There are a few scenes in The 13 th Warrior that are comparable to scenes in Beowulf. When Ahmed and his men were attacked by the bear men in the small hut, they fought for a while and the bear men fled back into the night to their cave. This scene is correspondent to when Beowulf defeated Grendel in the mead-hall. Grendel fled back into the night, down to his cave under the hellish waters of the lake.
After these scenes in Beowulf and The 13 th Warrior another event takes place that is much like each other. Beowulf is asked to find Grendel's mother and slay her as well. He searches for hours in the lake until he is snatched by her and is carried to her cave. Beowulf slaughters her here. In The 13 th Warrior Ahmed and his comrades murdered the bear mens mother, just as Beowulf had done to Grendel's mother. There are other similarities in Beowulf and The 13 th Warrior that can be found throughout the poem and movie; they are not necessarily represented by certain scenes or events.
The Anglo-Saxon code relates to many characters in Beowulf and The 13 th Warrior. The Anglo-Saxon code consists of honor, valor, and victory. Beowulf and Ahmed and his cohorts are honorable because all through the stories they fought the evil, they protected the people of the town, Herot, when they needed to be protected. The characters from both works are also valorous because they fought the monsters and the bear men, they were not afraid of dying. Finally, Beowulf and Ahmed and his companions are victorious because they manage to defeat the evil, the whole purpose of fighting is to win and that is what they did. The fire worm from The 13 th Warrior and the dragon from Beowulf are no different from one another.
The leader of the Norsemen, who obviously represents Beowulf, fights the fire worm. He was wounded during battle and died shortly afterwards. In Beowulf, Beowulf fights the dragon, though he was not the one to kill the beast, he fought, was burned terribly from the flames of the dragon and, like the leader of the Norsemen, he dies shortly afterwards. The similarities in the movie The 13 th Warrior and in the epic poem Beowulf outweigh the differences that the two incredible pieces of fiction have.
They had scenes that were very much alike and ideas that occurred from beginning to end of both tales. They also had their differences that were obvious, but were fashioned so that The 13 th Warrior would thrive with creativity and originality.
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Research essay sample on Anglo Saxon Epic Poem
