---
title: "From Epic Characters to a Movie Transformation: Tracing the Journey — paper by Gautam (2020)"
description: "This literary-studies article (Trishita Gautam, with co-author Piyush Kumar Banerjee) asks how faithfully two modern films render the Old… 15 references."
authors: ["Trishita Gautam"]
year: 2020
venue: "Litinfinite 2"
source: "https://www.litinfinite.com/wp-content/uploads/4_Piyush-Kumar-Banerjee.pdf"
doi: "10.47365/litinfinite.2.1.2020.22-29"
licence: "CC BY-NC (journal licence per DOAJ; Litinfinite)"
licence_url: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/"
summary_licence: "Elamur Cosmic License"
canonical: "https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/gautam-2020-epic-characters-movie-transformation-tracing/"
---
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# From Epic Characters to a Movie Transformation: Tracing the Journey of Beowulf from Old English Poetry to Contemporary Motion Picture

**Authors:** Trishita Gautam · **Year:** 2020 · **Venue:** Litinfinite 2 · **Licence:** [CC BY-NC (journal licence per DOAJ; Litinfinite)](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)

**Links:** [Publisher's page](https://doi.org/10.47365/litinfinite.2.1.2020.22-29) · [PDF](https://www.litinfinite.com/wp-content/uploads/4_Piyush-Kumar-Banerjee.pdf) · [DOI 10.47365/litinfinite.2.1.2020.22-29](https://doi.org/10.47365/litinfinite.2.1.2020.22-29) · [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W3072940827)

**Citations:** 0 citations (OpenAlex, 2026-10-14)

## Summary
This literary-studies article (Trishita Gautam, with co-author Piyush Kumar Banerjee) asks how faithfully two modern films render the Old English epic Beowulf. It compares Sturla Gunnarsson's *Beowulf & Grendel* (2005) and Robert Zemeckis's *Beowulf* (2007) with the poem. The analysis focuses on four figures: Beowulf, Hrothgar, Grendel and Grendel's mother. It draws on the Raffel and Chickering translations and on secondary criticism.

The method is qualitative close reading. For each character, the author lists the traits the poem gives them, then notes what each film keeps, adds or changes. The main finding is that the films keep the broad themes, such as good against evil, courage and honour. However, they reduce the moral stature of the heroes: Beowulf becomes prouder, greedier and more sexual, and Hrothgar loses dignity. The monsters, by contrast, gain emotional backstories.

The author concludes that the adaptations fall short of the poem's intensity. They still show how an orally rooted epic invites each generation to reinterpret it.

## Key points
- The corpus is the epic plus two films: *Beowulf & Grendel* (2005, Gunnarsson) and *Beowulf* (2007, Zemeckis, scripted by Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary).
- In the poem, Beowulf appears in two life phases about fifty years apart. Both films add a romantic or erotic side to him.
- In the 2005 film, Hrothgar kills Grendel's father but spares the young Grendel. He later accepts baptism in hope of saving his kingdom.
- In the 2007 film, Grendel's mother becomes a shape-shifting water demon. She is Grendel's mother by Hrothgar, and she bargains with Beowulf for the golden horn and a new son.
- The 2005 film keeps her as in the poem, a grieving avenger who takes a life for a life. The paper links Zemeckis's version to the Sirens and to Macbeth's Weird Sisters.

## Interesting ideas
- The comparison is organised as a per-character grid: a fixed set of characters, each with traits checked in every version of the story, which makes divergences between retellings explicit and countable.
- The paper notes that the hero's motive (helping the needy versus seeking glory) is never settled, and treats this as an open question rather than forcing one reading.
- A character who never gets a name is identified only through a kinship relation to another character, and that relation itself shapes how her acts are read (vengeance, not mere savagery).
- Some facts in the 2007 film, such as Hrothgar's secret union, are shown only to the audience and hidden from the other characters.
- The paper explains new versions of a character through archetypes from other works: a seducer who lures men to ruin, like the Sirens or the Weird Sisters.

## For Mova

How these ideas could serve Mova, our small open language model — its files, stages and tests:

- **I1** (world): Build entity profiles (traits, motives, relations) per text, then diff the profiles of the same entity across two retellings to explain what changed and where.
- **I2** (frames): When a frame's motive or purpose role is underdetermined, keep several labelled candidate motives with their textual support instead of choosing one silently.
- **I3** (frames): Coreference should treat relational descriptors like "X's mother" as stable entity anchors, and pass the relation on as evidence for interpreting that entity's actions.
- **I4** (world): Keep separate knowledge states for the reader and for each character, so answers about who knows what stay explainable.
- **I5** (answer): A small ontology of narrative roles, such as tempter or avenger, could help the fable and tale QA reader answer "what kind of character is this" questions by matching roles to patterns of actions.

*Our summary of the paper, in our own words — not its text. The work belongs to its authors; read it at the links above.*

## Institutions

- [University of Haifa](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/universities/university-of-haifa/) — University, Haifa, Israel · 27 works · 871 citations

Also on the byline: [Government of West Bengal](https://ror.org/044jr0f96) · [Erasmus+](https://ror.org/01v2m4n16).

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## Cite

Cite as: Trishita Gautam. 2020. From Epic Characters to a Movie Transformation: Tracing the Journey of Beowulf from Old English Poetry to Contemporary Motion Picture. Litinfinite 2.

The paper itself, not this page. BibTeX from the library's record of the work.

```bibtex
@inproceedings{gautam2020epic,
  title = {{From Epic Characters to a Movie Transformation: Tracing the Journey of Beowulf from Old English Poetry to Contemporary Motion Picture}},
  author = {Trishita Gautam},
  booktitle = {Litinfinite 2},
  year = {2020},
  doi = {10.47365/litinfinite.2.1.2020.22-29},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.47365/litinfinite.2.1.2020.22-29}
}
```

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## References

15 references, 0 of them with a card of ours. ↗ leads to the work, «find» searches for one we have no id for yet.

1. "(DOC) ''Beowulf'' and the Influence of Old English on J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings | Hugo J. Morin - Academia.edu." Academia.edu - Share Research. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 May 2020. \<[https://www.academia.edu/1567195/Beowulf_and_the_Influence_of_Old_English_o](https://www.academia.edu/1567195/Beowulf_and_the_Influence_of_Old_English_o) n_J.R.R._Tolkien_s_The_Lord_of_the_Rings> "“Beowulf“ & History by Jacob Howland | The New Criterion." The New Criterion - A Monthly Review of the Arts & Intellectual Life. [↗](https://www.academia.edu/1567195/Beowulf_and_the_Influence_of_Old_English_o)
2. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 June 2020. \<[https://newcriterion.com/issues/2020/6/beowulf-history](https://newcriterion.com/issues/2020/6/beowulf-history)> i. ii. [↗](https://newcriterion.com/issues/2020/6/beowulf-history)
3. Gilsdorf, Ethan. "J.R.R. Tolkien’s Translation of ‘Beowulf’ Is Published - The New York Times." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Jan. 2020. \<[https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/19/books/jrr-tolkiens-translation-of-beowulf-is-published.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/19/books/jrr-tolkiens-translation-of-beowulf-is-published.html)> [↗](https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/19/books/jrr-tolkiens-translation-of-beowulf-is-published.html)
4. (accessed February 22, 2020) 25 Lattimore, Richmond. "On Classical and English Poetry." Phoenix 6.3 (1952): 84. 26 "Looking at Epic Poetry Through 21st-Century Eyes - The New York Times." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. [↗](https://doi.org/10.2307/1086578)
5. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Jan. 2020. \<[https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/books/epic-poem-boewulf-aeneid-faerie-queene.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/books/epic-poem-boewulf-aeneid-faerie-queene.html)> (accessed January 14, 2020) 27 Ibid ISSN: 2582-0400 [Online] [↗](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/books/epic-poem-boewulf-aeneid-faerie-queene.html)
6. CODEN: LITIBR Vol-2, Issue-1 (2 nd July, 2020) [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=CODEN%3A+LITIBR+Vol%2D2%2C+Issue%2D1+%282+nd+July%2C+2020%29)
7. Page No: 22-29 DOI: 10.47365/litinfinite.2.1.2020.22-29 Section: Article iii. "Angelina Jolie Is the Most Beautiful Woman in the World." Vanity Fair. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 June. 2020. \<https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2009/04/angelina-jolie-is-the-most-beautiful-woman-in-the-world> iv. "In Beowulf, is Grendel an Actual Monster, a Wicked Man, or a Symbol of Immorality?" ENotes. [↗](https://doi.org/10.47365/litinfinite.2.1.2020.22-29)
8. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 May 2020. \<[https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/beowulf-grendel-an-actual-monster-wicked-man-1073168](https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/beowulf-grendel-an-actual-monster-wicked-man-1073168)> v. "J.R.R. Tolkien’s Translation of ‘Beowulf’ Is Published - The New York Times." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. [↗](https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/beowulf-grendel-an-actual-monster-wicked-man-1073168)
9. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 July. 2020. \<[https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/19/books/jrr-tolkiens-translation-of-beowulf-is-published.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/19/books/jrr-tolkiens-translation-of-beowulf-is-published.html)> vi. "Looking at Epic Poetry Through 21st-Century Eyes - The New York Times." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. [↗](https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/19/books/jrr-tolkiens-translation-of-beowulf-is-published.html)
10. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Jan. 2020. \<[https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/books/epic-poem-boewulf-aeneid-faerie-queene.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/books/epic-poem-boewulf-aeneid-faerie-queene.html)> vii. Beowulf and Oral Epic Tradition." CHS. [↗](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/books/epic-poem-boewulf-aeneid-faerie-queene.html)
11. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 June 2020. \<[https://chs.harvard.edu/CHS/article/display/6275.4-beowulf-and-oral-epic-tradition](https://chs.harvard.edu/CHS/article/display/6275.4-beowulf-and-oral-epic-tradition)> viii. Chickering, Howell D. Beowulf: A Dual-language Edition. [↗](https://chs.harvard.edu/CHS/article/display/6275.4-beowulf-and-oral-epic-tradition)
12. Anchor Canada, 2006. Print. ix. Coles, Jane, and Theo Bryer. "Reading as enactment: transforming Beowulf through drama, film and computer game." English in Education 52.1 (2018): 54-66. Print. x. Gilsdorf, Ethan. "J.R.R. Tolkien’s Translation of ‘Beowulf’ Is Published - The New York Times." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Anchor+Canada%2C+2006%2E+Print%2E+ix%2E+Coles%2C+Jane%2C+and+Theo+Bryer%2E+%22Reading+as+enactment%3A+transforming+Beowulf+through+drama%2C+film+and+computer+game%2E%22+English+in+Education+52%2E1+%282018%29%3A+54%2D66%2E+Print%2E+x%2E+Gils)
13. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Jan. 2020. \<[https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/19/books/jrr-tolkiens-translation-of-beowulf-is-published.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/19/books/jrr-tolkiens-translation-of-beowulf-is-published.html)> itachi. “Beowulf & Grendel Espagnol.” YouTube, uploaded by itachi, 14 Apr. 2015, \<www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBjFAVah-Vo&t=299s.> Lattimore, Richmond. "On Classical and English Poetry." Phoenix 6.3 (1952): 84. Print. Raffel, Burton. Beowulf. New York: New American Library, 1963. Print. Sorrell, Paul. “Oral Poetry and the World of Beowulf,” Oral Tradition. 7(1), 1992. Print. xi. xii. xiii. xiv. [↗](https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/19/books/jrr-tolkiens-translation-of-beowulf-is-published.html)
14. TheFantasyCentral. “Beowulf (2007).” YouTube, uploaded by TheFantasyCentral, 4 [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=TheFantasyCentral%2E+%E2%80%9CBeowulf+%282007%29%2E%E2%80%9D+YouTube%2C+uploaded+by+TheFantasyCentral%2C+4)
15. Feb. 2011, \<www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaShOr5AeKA&list=PLTLNwZ6BJw3E4-KIQpvUavf--snQn4Qxx.> xv. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Feb%2E+2011%2C+%3Cwww%2Eyoutube%2Ecom%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DDaShOr5AeKA%26list%3DPLTLNwZ6BJw3E4%2DKIQpvUavf%2D%2DsnQn4Qxx%2E%3E+xv%2E)

*Updated 24 October 2026*