Ok …… I liked this flick.
After getting home and checking my own sources (which I should’ve done beforehand) I think I like it a lot. I would have gone to see it again when brother Richard came over, but we had business to attend to. I would recommend it with a few caveats because this movie is not for everyone. This is a Canada / Iceland / UK production and the Canadian part is done by the same people that produce stuff on my satellite movie channel, so I can expect to see it there before too long. However, I’m pretty sure I’ll get the DVD. Given that this flick won’t likely get any Oscar nominations and a very low public profile, I probably won’t have to wait long for the DVD either.
If you didn’t like 13th Warrior you won’t like this.
If you did like 13th Warrior then, well, you might like it. The problem is that Beowulf and Grendel feels like a low(er) budget version of 13th Warrior and has a somewhat slower and quieter pace to it. This isn’t an action packed epic, but then again, neither is the Saga. We are dealing with the very beginning of the Vendel, so life is pretty Spartan to begin with, therefore an apparent low budget doesn’t mean a poor movie.
While some knowledge of the Saga would be helpful to move the story along I don’t think it’s necessary. It stands up well on its own although the audience may get a little confused now and then, but certainly not nearly as bad as other flicks such as Alexander.
This is a Canada / Iceland / UK production, which means that while the research should be top notch (after I checked my sources, very good) it also means the actors are almost entirely from the UK and Scandinavia. This normally would be good so far as acting ability goes, but there are some irritations. While the Scandinavian actors speak good clear English, it’s the UK actors that don’t. Fancy that eh. The Beowulf character speaks with such a heavy Gaelic accent that at times is almost unintelligible. The movie is filmed in Iceland, which is kind of rugged. I may be wrong but I think the Saga tales place in Zeeland (the biggest island of modern Denmark). I’ve never been there but I have the impression of a more gentle terrain.
Now my mind may be playing tricks on me, and I’d have to see the movie again, but I swear Beowulf and his 12 companions (13 warriors) used 3 different boats to represent one. And I’m not so sure there were 13 dudes either. Like I said, I’ll have to watch it again.
The movie isn’t a verbatim account of the Beowulf Saga either. Quelle surprise. Beowulf comprises 3 battles, Beowulf vs Grendel, Beowulf vs Grendels mum and Beowulf vs the Dragon. The movie covers the first battle and a rather truncated second battle and no third battle. Not having the third is fine by me because I dislike dragons, or stories of them, and the event occurs some 50 years after the other two. This one ends with Beowulf on his boat heading back to Geatland.
For me, however, none of the above are killer concerns. In fact it does very well where it counts for me. For the parts of the Saga it covers there is a bit of revisionism that movie makers find it impossible to resist, it is not at all severe. You would have to know the Saga quite well to pick up on much of the revisions.
Indeed this movie corrected my initial preconceptions of the era of Beowulf that, when I got home and checked, the movie turned out to be absolutely correct. I stated in my earlier post that this is a depiction of a 7th century event. The monk in the movie states that Clovis is dead by 10 years, making it the year 521, the 6th century. The movie is correct. Indeed, this part of Beowulf is bracketed by 2 historically recorded events. The first is recorded by Frankish scribes as a Geat raid on Frankish lands in 516 and the Geat leader, Hygelac, is killed. According to the legend, Hygelac is Beowulf’s uncle. The second historical event is the Battle on the Ice, between the Swedes and Wulfings, in the year 530 and according to legend, Beowulf participated.
Another preconception I had and bothered me in the movie was the cavalry. While the arms and armour seemed very correct to me and they used the tiny Icelandic ponies to depict type of mount used at that time and place, it was the iron stirrups that became a distraction. Again when I checked, the movie was indeed correct. This is early Vendel culture and at that time they were second only to the Thuringians as the best cavalry in Europe and the very first in Europe to use the metal stirrup. This is because of their contact, via their brethren Goths, with the Hun (likely the Sarmatian Alans) invasion a century earlier. At the Battle on the Ice, the Swedish king fought entirely on horseback and metal stirrups have been found in the area.
I wish I had checked my sources before seeing the movie as I would’ve enjoyed it that much more.
At least my preconceptions of the arms and armour jived well with the movie. The Vendel period spans the period between the end of the Volkerwanderungs and the Viking era and centered in southern Sweden and Denmark. The Vendels at that point were playing catch-up to the rest of Europe. Iron mail was used but were purchased (from the Celts?) rather than made, and often second hand and so should appear rather shabby and torn often necessitating supplanting with hardened leather armour. The movie had that. The swords would be copies of the Roman spatha, which they did make themselves with their own innovation, the fuller. The fuller, erroneously called the “blood channel”, was invented, along with “pattern welding”, to compensate for the poor and inconsistent quality of steel manufacturing. The blades had to be made thicker to prevent bending, and staying bent, but in order to bring the weight back down they gouged out a channel along the centre axis of the blade. Along with the distinctive helmet, battle axes, padded body armour and lots of fur clothing and caps, the movie gets high marks in my book.
I’ll take the time for some historical referencing.
The region I am speaking of, Scandza, comprises the peninsular part of Sweden, roughly the southern 40% or so of modern Sweden’s north-south length, plus all of modern Denmark and its islands plus a little bit of Germany adjacent to it. According to scholars this is the region of the proto-Germans, native people who spoke a non-Indo-European (IE) language and had a non-IE culture. Around 1200 BCE the IE would arrive and meld, peaceably and not, with them thus creating the Germanic languages and cultures, which received further evolution into more variants as they moved southward, through other peoples, toward Celtic lands of the upper and middle Danube. Whereas the climate of 1200 BCE was almost Mediterranean, by the 9th century BCE it became cooler and wetter and in the 7th century BCE the climate changed even more severely, thus forcing further southward migrations. Unfortunately for them, the La Tene culture Celts (inventors of iron mail and master ironworkers) went on a counter migration. No, it was an outright invasion on a massive scale. They would hold hegemony over nearly all of Germania, even Jutland (the modern Danish peninsula), until Caesar broke the back of Celtic power concentrated in Gaul, thereafter the Germans began expelling the Celts.
At this point the people of the original homeland, Scandza, the lands of Beowulf, organized itself by clan and tribe into slightly but significantly different groups by culture and dialect. On the Swedish peninsula the northern third was held by the Swedes. The remainder of the lands, which at this point included much land now submerged, were Gothic sub groups. From around 150BCE to 150 CE the climate had become so wet that the Baltic Sea rose drastically, submerging huge tracts of land forcing a massive migration. The Ostrogoths, Visigoths and Gepids, as a group, fled wholesale toward the Black Sea and the Crimea. The Rugians pushed hard into the land of the Balts in the east, the Burgundians onto the north German soil, Langobards deeper southward, the Thuringians deep into west central Germania melding briefly with the Hermandurii and the Suebi into the arms of the Hermione confederacy for a time. The Iutes (Jutes) managed to hold on to Jutland (modern Danish peninsula) having expelled the Celto-German Cimbri, Teutones and Ambrones earlier (when they terrorized Rome in the time of Marius and Sulla who then destroyed these tribes) but were struggling against the Danes in Sweden as well as the Angles to their south (at the neck of the peninsula). Caesar had to deal with the Frisians and Chauci in his time, and the Romans continued to hold them off, but the Chauci felt the brunt of their brother Saxon tribes, who were in turn being scrunched by the encroaching sea, their brother Angles and the western German confederacies, most violently but unsuccessfully against the Frankish tribes. Eventually the Chauci would merge into a new Saxon Confederacy. The Skaggs managed to gain control of Zeeland and surrounding islands expelling the Catti who ended up amongst the Frankish tribes.
Finally, the climate and geography stabilized and so did Scandza and Germania. Well, relatively anyway. Of the Goths remaining on the Swedish peninsula, further differentiation and struggling continued. The Swedes still held there northern third of southern Sweden, the middle third would split, the lesser eastern portion would be held by a powerful Geat family, the Wulfings, and the greater western portion became the Geats (who would gain the reputation of being overly fond of war). The remaining southern tip of modern Sweden was held by the Danes, Herulii and Scirii. The Danes, however, eventually absorbed the other two and expelling those who would not submit. The Roman Magister Militus (top general) and defacto king, Odoacer, was a Herulii.. The only other major struggle was with Rome. The German Marcomanni on the middle Danube were pissed off at Rome about something, I forget what, and managed to get the German Quadi, some Scandzian Suebi clans and the Sarmatian Iazyges to join their cause and invade Roman territory. Marcus Aurelius would spend nearly 20 years fighting them before finally and utterly destroying them at Vindibona (Vienna) in 180 CE. The movie Gladiator depicted this battle in the opening scene with Richard Harris as aging Marcus Aurelius. Marcus would extract a levy of 8,000 cavalry from the Sarmatian and sending 6,000 of those to Britain. The tribes themselves disappear from history. After this victory there would be 2 centuries of relative peace and quiet.
And then came the Huns. I would describe it as a gigantic mudslide gathering rubble and wreckage from innumerable tribes swelling its mass and destructiveness as it moved westward out of central Siberia steppes. Mongol (possibly the Xiongnu, after their defeat by the Han dynasty of China), Turk (including precursor Avars), the many Sarmatian tribes such as the Massegetae, Sakae and Alans, many Slav and Bulgar tribes get swept up, then the whole mass engulfing the unlucky Ostrogoths Gepids, Scirii and Burgundians around the mid 4th century. The Old Norse Hervara Saga may be an account of the first meeting of Goth and Hun in an epic battle near the Danube. The inevitable Domino Effect results and Rome felt the pressure painfully in the east as the Volkerwanderung begin. The Visigoths managed to “convince” Rome to let them escape the Hun juggernaut behind Roman lines and were settled as fedeorati in Aquitaine region of Gaul. The Hun horde finally pooled in the Hungarian plain, but were not finished yet. The Roman general Aetius would spend 10 years of his youth as a political exchange hostage in the Hunnish camps. When the contender for the Imperial Purple, Johannes, cried out to Aetius for help, Aetius arrived (too late) at the head of a 60,000 strong Hun mounted army, almost entirely Goth and Gepid. In 451 Aetius would face this army of Attila and his ethnic and cultural patchwork army. The most feared, and most troublesome, of the Huns were the Goths, who were then beginning to adopt the metal stirrup from the Alans. Aetius himself had large numbers Visigoths and Burgundians as well as the Germanic Franks to bolster his Imperial Troops.
By then, however, the damage done by the Huns, directly and indirectly, had already reached the irrecoverable stage. After the Vandals crossed the frozen Rhine in 408, the flood of humanity from Germany, wouldn’t and couldn’t be stopped. The Volkerwanderung has come to the west. Rome would be sacked by Alaric and his Visigoths in 410 and again in 411. In 420 the Vandals will reach North Africa and set up a kingdom there. Britain was abandoned by Rome at about this time, and told to look after its own defense. It would attempt to do so by doing what Rome had been doing for quite some time, hire German mercenaries, which began arriving in 442. Of course things got out of hand quickly once the Germans realized the weakness of the Romano-Brit situation and decided to take Britain for themselves. The last cry for help from Britain to Aetius in 446, the Groans of the Britons as later recounted by Gildas. In 449 Hengist and Horsa and a large Jute warband land on the Kentish shore by invitation of Vortigern, the Romano-Brit military governor, to help push back the Picts as well as Celt invaders from Ireland, the Scots. By 455 Vortigern and the Jutes are at war with each other, and in the east, after the death of Attila, the Ostrogoths, Gepids and others rise up against their Hun masters utterly destroying them at the Nedao river. This may have been the inspiration behind the Old Norse Volsunga Saga and Old German Nibelunglied. By this time the Saxons enter Gaul and by 464 reach and settle in the Loire River valley while the Jutes have secured Kent, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. In around 470 the Burgundians form kingdoms in Worms, Vienna, Geneva and Lyon, while in Italy the Herulii Odoacer is the defacto ruler. In 476 the Deposition of the last Western Roman Emperor, Romulus Augustus (sent to a monastery where he dies in 510). The following year Aelle and the Loire Saxons invade Britain. In 481 while Clovis claims the kingship of all the Salian Franks (the Sugambri, Chamavi, Tencteri, Chattuarii, Bructerii, Usipetes, Ampsivarii and also includes the Scandzian Catti tribe. Interesting, Clovis and the Merovingian dynasty claimed, through their home tribe Sugambri, to be descendants of the Cimmerians. They were unusual among the Franks in having long hair instead of close shaved sides and top knotted style). Also at this time there is trouble Scandza as the aggressive Danes invade Zeeland and conduct Viking style raids on the Jutes, Angles and the German Baltic coast. These raids may have been the trigger that started the Angles to completely evacuate their homeland and move to Britain. Inexplicably, their homeland would remain uninhabited for the next 2 centuries. In northern Gaul in the year 486, Clovis defeats Syagrius, the last of the Romans. In Italy itself the situation was such a mess that the Eastern Roman Emperor commissions the Ostrogoth Theodoric to recover Italy in the name of the Empire. He also agrees that Theodoric could take his entire Ostrogoth people with him. Not surprisingly Theodoric soon begins to rule Italy in his own name and people. However, he does such a good job of restoring Italy to some level of stability and civility that in 497 the Eastern Emperor recognizes Theodoric as king of a new Ostrogoth Kingdom of Italy and given the eponym “the Great”. That same year Clovis, fulfilling a promise to his wife and as a prayer for the defeat of the German Allamanni confederacy, is baptized into the Catholic Church. This was as much a political move as a spiritual and bid for marital bliss reason. The Christianizing of the oncoming barbarians had been ongoing for over a century, but they opted for the Arian brand. By going for the Roman Church Clovis could have access to Imperial troops to further his ambitions in Gaul, particularly against the Visigoths of Aquitaine. Sadly, it was not how devout a Christian you were, but rather what brand of Christian. The deal was further cemented by having his sister marry Theodoric. Also about this time Aelle had become the Senior King of the greatly expanded Saxon territory in southern Britain and had been joined by more Saxons lead by Cerdic and his son Cynric, the legendary ancestors of Alfred the Great.
These events of the 5th century had a major impact on Scandza. Prior to this they had a major and fruitful trade contact with the whole of the Roman Empire. With the Huns and the resulting Volkerwanderung this was destroyed. The standard of living dropped and stress increased. While the Swedes, Geats, Danes et al had always been beating on each other, it was now reaching a much more serious level. The Danes would go on to conquer and meld with the Jutes for example. Because of the contact with the Hun Horde cavalry would be honed to a fine art, aided by the adoption of the iron stirrup. Arms and armour suffered somewhat, much of it still being purchased from the few remaining Celt outposts and at a dearer price. The population began to drop because of increased warfare and the almost inevitable plague and many, such as the Herulii and Scirii, joined the Volkerwanderung. Possibly because of the increased level of grief and suffering, Christianity began to gain a following, lead by some very brave monks (the movie has some quite funny moments over this). This then is the Vendel era in Scandza, the world in which Beowulf is born (possibly as Clovis is being baptized). It would spread north and west into the Norwegian tribes and within 2 centuries Scandza would begin their own Volkerwanderung, the Viking era.
In the Saga, Beowulf is the son of Ecgbeow, a Swede of the powerful Waegmund clan. Ecgbeow slays a prominent member of the more powerful Geatish Wulfing clan. The law states you must pay the slain’s family or clan with your life or a weregild, “man price”. The weregild was created in an effort to prevent blood feuds. Killing a member of such a prominent clan, the weregild was set very high. Too high for Ecgbeow and not wanting to pay with his life either he fled to Zeeland and to Heorot, the great hall (actually more like a great party hardy hall) of the Danish King Hrothgar and his Celtic Queen Wealhbeow. Hrothgar, maybe because he became wealthy after conquering Zeeland, generously pays the weregild. Soon after Ecgbeow goes to Geatland and goes into service as a housecarl of the Geat King Hreoel and marries a daughter by whom they beget Beowulf. Later Hreoel dies (of grief for the accidental loss of a son) and Beowulf supports his mother’s brother, Hygelac, to the Geat throne.
To speculatively mix myth, legend, history and the movie, in the movie we are introduced to Beowulf swimming to shore in full mail armour. This recounts the incident in which Beowulf escapes from the battle in which his uncle Hygelac is killed. Both the battle and the name Hygelac are recorded by the Franks as taking place in the year 516. The Franks themselves are split among the 4 sons of Clovis (d. 511), Theuderic holding Metz, Chlodimer has Orlean, Childebert received Paris and Chlotar inherits Soisson. They do, however, manage to give the Geats a thrashing (though the scribes identify them as Danes). Also in this year (or possibly 494 or 504) Gildas, the Christian Briton scholar and writer is born. In his famous sermon De Excidio Britanniae or On the Ruin of Britain, he would write “To Agitius [Aetius], thrice consul, the groans of the Britons... the barbarians drive us to the sea, the sea drives us to the barbarians, between these two means of death we are either killed or drowned.”, and in other parts of the sermon he writes "Britain has kings, yet they are tyrants; it has judges, yet they are undutiful", and adds "Britain has priests, but they are fools; numerous ministers, but they are shameless; clerics, but they are wily plunderers.". Gildas also wrote that on the year of his birth the Battle of Badon Hill is fought and that Aetius had sent a general, Germanus, a former bishop, in answer to the Groans of the Britons, in lieu of an army.
According to the monk in the movie, the year is now 521 and we have Beowulf offering his service to Hrothgar to fight the troll Grendel. Hrothgar accepts, as repayment for helping Beowulfs dad. So, not to go through the movie, Beowulf kills Grendel and then his mom. In the movie Grendel is portrayed as a 7 foot muscle bound Neanderthal like hair ball, and Grendel’s mother as some albino amphibious banshee. It worked for me. At this time the Franks are fully involved in a Burgundian civil war (who were split between the Catholic and Arian churches). In south Britain, after the death of Aelle, the Saxons split up and Cerdic is now King of the West Saxons.
Except for the first 15 minutes or so of the movie, Beowulf and Grendel plays out in 521, and I think it has the feel of the movie. I felt I could identify with the Beowulf character closer than I could with the Rus leader in 13th Warrior. Indeed, 13th Warrior centres more on Fadlan than the Norse leader, so for that reason alone I like B & G better. But there’s more that I like. You get a better feel of the Vendel or Nordic culture than in 13th Warrior. Watching the early attempts at Christianizing these pagans, through that poor monk, makes me wonder at the kind of person it takes to do such a thing. It also makes for a few humorous moments. Note that this Saga was (likely) written by Christian monks several centuries later and its bias very is apparent. The movie, I feel, has a more realistic feel to it, certainly aided by the humour. There’s quite a bit of humour in this flick and maybe part of the reason I feel closer to it. The attempted conversation between Beowulf and Grendel was hilarious. I will see this movie again, and again and again, at the theatre, on TV and on DVD.
In the year 530, Beowulf participates in the Battle of the Ice between the Swedes and Geats, after which he becomes King of the Geats and rules for 50 years. Justinian has been the Eastern Roman Emperor for 3 years and will, 3 years later, begin the construction of St. Sophia in Constantinople as the Langobards are beginning to push into Italy, held off by the Ostrogoths. The Franks have settled the Burgundians down and have pushed the Visigoths out of Gaul and into Visigoth Spain, but the sons of Clovis are now intriguing to kill each other. The entire population of the Angles is now in Britain and this pressure is pushing the Britons out of Britain and into Wales, Cornwall and northwest Gaul (to become known as Brittany). Wessex in a vicious war with the Jutes with Cerdic taking the Isle of Wight in this year. Some modern scholars are now accusing the West Saxons of ethnic cleansing, removing any Vendel culture and replacing it with a more German one. In any case, we hear no more of Jutes in Britain, and back in their homeland, Jutland, no more will soon be heard of Jutes there either as the Danes are pushing hard on them.
In the year 580, Beowulf dies of his wounds after slaying a dragon. Much has happened in the intervening years. In a bid to recreate the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Emperor, Justinian, goes on the offensive, lead by one of the best generals in history, Belisaurus. He would eliminate the Vandals in Africa and take a chunk out of Visigoth Spain while the Visigoths are busy fighting themselves. In his assault on Ostrogoth Italy, the destruction is horrific, virtually depopulating southern Italy. Justinian gets possession of Sicily and some of southern Italy and has destroyed the Ostrogoth kingdom. In so doing, he eliminated the only force capable of holding off the Langobards and with the Ostrogoths gone, northern Italy quickly succumbs to the lawless rapacious Langobards. The Byzantines are forced to halt and turn home as yet another Persian Empire is on the rise in the east and from the north the Bulgars are coming. In one of the bloodiest battles on English lands, the Angles destroy the last army of northern Britons at Camlann, not far from Badon Hill. The Angles are in possession of central, north and east Britain. North of the Humber River, King Uriens would unite the Anglian houses of Bernice and Diera to form the first post Roman powerhouse in Britain, Northumbria. Near the end of this period, Wessex eliminates the last 3 remaining Briton kings at Battle of Dyram. In Gaul, Chlotar becomes the sole King of the Franks and when he dies shortly after, his lands are divided amongst his sons, according to Salian Law. However, quickly after, another dynastic struggle begins as the grandsons of Clovis go at each other in a no holds barred war with even their wives covert involvement. All the resources of Gaul go into feeding this fire. Roads, buildings and aqueducts crumble in disrepair, and even the most basic form of governing and civic management goes into hiding. In this year 580, plague now sweeps through Western Europe and its population is in severe decline.
As Beowulf lays on his deathbed, the lights go out in Europe and in the east, cavalry charges are kicking up storms of sand. In far off Arabia, a 10 year old boy, Mohammed Abacus, is honing his equestrian skills.
