Another difference would be that in the poem Beowulf goes back to Geatland, home of the Geats, to become king but in the movie Beowulf stays in Denmark, home of the Danes, to take over for Hrothgar after his death. Beowulf becomes king of Hrothgar's kingdom. Also, the poem and the movie have different endings. This would be another example of how the poem and the movie differ.
In addition to the major differences there are also some smaller and not so important differences between the poem and the movie. One of these differences happens to be in the poem. Grendel kills one of the Danes and proceeds to get away from Beowulf, but as he is running away, Beowulf catches his arm. However, in the film while Grendel is trying to run away Beowulf puts a rope around his wrist and Grendel jumps out of the building and gets caught on the rope. Then Grendel cuts his own arm off to get away from Beowulf and the other Danes but in the movie Grendel doesn’t have to go through that excruciating pain.
Another small difference between the poem and the movie is that while Beowulf and the Danes are on the boat, Grendel's mother tries to grab one of the men down into the water where she lives. In the poem however, Grendel’s mother doesn’t show up until after Grendel's death. Also, in the movie Beowulf doesn't kill Grendel's mother. He returns after the battle and claims that he has killed her though. In the poem, Beowulf kills Grendel’s mother right away.
The last small difference between the movie and the poem would be that in the movie Grendel has a son with the witch Selma but, in the poem Grendel does not have a son. There is also no mention of the witch Selma in the poem. Although there are many differences between the two, both the poem and the movie basically follow the same story line.
I like both the book and the movie, but if I had to choose I would say I like the movie better. I prefer the movie over the book for a few reasons, the first reason being that the movie gives a visual description of the book. This epic includes a lot of action and the movie helps you visually understand what is going on and how the characters feel and react. Another reason would be that the movie helps make the story more interesting by allowing you to visualize the action scenes. Also, there were some humorous parts in the movie. I think this helped contribute to the interesting aspect of it.
