When Beowulf describes his death at the hands of Grendel, he masks his even greater fear of failing his people and not being able to protect them from the greater evils of their world. I think this is because he had preceded a king that did the best he could to protect his people at the greatest costs. While his fear can be represented as both physical and non-physical, it mainly falls into the category of non-physical. This is so because although his death would signify the fall of his kingdom, he was not afraid of death itself. Because of the events that were taking place, his fear is most definitely rational and even more so relevant.
Beowulf feared failing his duty as a warrior and protector of his people, as well as the shame of not living up to his reputation as a hero. He also feared the idea of being defeated in battle and losing his status and legacy.
Beowulf is a paradox, a unique conjunction of the courageously clever and depressingly dumb. It's a big, brutal, boys' film, aimed - like the equally grandiose Spartan epic 300 before it - at big, brutal boys.
But it's also a lot of fun, especially the way I saw it, through 3D spectacles on an enormous Imax screen. At one point, I thought Angelina Jolie's physical attributes were going to poke my eyes out. What a way to go.
Ahem. Let's begin with the positives.
Beowulf may be the most famous of all Anglo-Saxon poems but as drama it is, to put it no higher, challenging.
It begins with a monster called Grendel attacking a hall full of drunken Danes (why - to show premature solidarity with Dawn Primarolo's anti-drinking campaign?) but sparing the life of their king, Hrothgar, also for no obvious reason.
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Then a foreign warrior called Beowulf appears. He bumps off Grendel. When Grendel's mother attacks the hall as a reprisal, Beowulf goes to her cave, slaughters her and brings back Grendel's head (but not his mother's - why not?).
As a reward, Beowulf is crowned King after Hrothgar's death. Then, 50 years later, a dragon turns up; whereupon Beowulf and the monster kill each other. The story is certainly eventful, but there are gaping holes in the narrative.
Virtually all the monsters' acts are unmotivated. And Beowulf himself tediously one-dimensional hero.
The adapters, Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary, have had the simple but revolutionary idea of asking: who was Grendel's father?
Their answer is Hrothgar, who was seduced by Grendel's mother - and she's no ordinary monster, but a demon who can turn herself into the most seductive of women, even if she is as mad as a bag of snakes (that's Ms Jolie, as if you couldn't guess).
And when Beowulf goes to kill her, she seduces him just as she captivated Hrothgar. The dragon which brings about Beowulf's downfall is Beowulf's own son.
This audacious take on myth makes Beowulf a less perfect, but far more interesting, hero. He's boastful, lies and is always ready to put the best spin on his actions.
As far as his character goes, he's a mixture of Simon Cowell, Jeffrey Archer and Tony Blair, with the physique of Christiano Ronaldo and the athleticism of Kate Garraway (it's all right - I'm joking).
Thus Beowulf becomes a charismatic, tragic hero, undone by his own hubristic wish to be a mythic hero, and corrupted by those reliable old regal attributes, power-madness and ungovernable lust.
Just as effectively, Grendel is portrayed not as a malign force of nature, but as a monstrous, slobbering, violent child - a malformed brute who trashes the King's mead hall because he can't stand the noise of the warriors' drunken chanting, and because he knows his father will always disown him for being a grotesque, misshapen brute.
As with previous classic monsters, such as Frankenstein's creation, this outcast is in some ways the most human, and vulnerable, character in the movie. In his need to lash out at toffs and inability to express himself comprehensibly, he's like a more sympathetic John Prescott.
Not every English Literature professor is going to agree with me, but this film strikes me as an intelligent take on the legend.
It's as good as telling us that the original tale we know is actually the expurgated version, handed down to us by monks and servile apologists for Kings. This sordid but probably more realistic version comes across as the real deal.
Robert Zemeckis's decision to shoot the story in the same way he made The Polar Express - by transforming real actors into digital images through 'performance capture' - results in spectacular three-dimensional images.
A flight across a frozen Danish landscape is beautifully portrayed, and the climactic fight between Beowulf and the dragon is as exciting a 3D sequence as I have seen.
Viewed in an ordinary cinema or, worse still, on television, this would have nowhere near the same impact. Seen on the big screen, it delivers.
There are a few negatives. Zemeckis's animators have not yet perfected their technique.
Facially, the characters are like indifferently animated waxworks, as dead behind the eyes as Labour ministers listening to a speech by David Miliband.
The female characters remain unlined, however old they are - it would seem that Botox may go back further into history than previously thought.
Some of the casting doesn't work. Ray Winstone's voice is so recognisable that it seems bizarre that his onscreen Beowulf looks more like a younger, more gym-honed, six-foot-six version of Sean Bean.
Winstone's naturally cockney tones don't lend themselves to the script's grander rhetorical flourishes: he shouts a lot for no reason, like Dirty Den throwing a wobbly in the Queen Vic, and always seems about to flog us a used dragon.
Anthony Hopkins uses his naturally Welsh tones as Hrothgar, and carries it off, but others in the cast - most disastrously Robin Wright Penn as his young Queen - attempt the same accent, with hilariously uneven results.
Even the self-consciously anachronistic dialogue didn't bother me too much, but the tendency of Grendel (Crispin Glover) and his mum to drift in and out of Anglo-Saxon is hard to understand, in every sense.
And though Angelina Jolie is sexy as Grendel's mother, her cloven-hoofed stilettos made me worry about how she could possibly negotiate her way around a slippery cave.
Testosterone-crazed boys of all ages will find Ms Jolie, and indeed the film as a whole, a guilty pleasure.
However, the bawdy humour - including an Austin Powers-style sequence where the nude Beowulf manages to fight Grendel without once exposing his manhood - seems a little too calculated to appeal to dirty-minded teenagers.
Quite apart from the needlessly gruesome violence, the sexual references are so crude that a 12A certificate is ridiculously irresponsible of the BBFC - it should have been a 15.
All in all, Beowulf is a dodgy mish-mash of the sublime and the ridiculous; but I'm glad I saw it in all its over-the-top glory. Even when it's bad, it's entertainingly bad.
Beowulf fears for the fall of his kingdom and danger that harms his people
Grendel responded with fear to the realization that Beowulf would challenge his fighting skills.
Wiglaf came to Beowulf's aid in his final battle with the dragon. He helped Beowulf out of loyalty and duty as a loyal thane and warrior in Beowulf's kingdom, despite the other warriors fleeing in fear.
Initially, all of Beowulf's men, except one, flee from the dragon in fear, leaving Beowulf to face the dragon alone. Only Wiglaf, a young warrior, stays to help Beowulf in the final battle against the dragon.
In 'Beowulf', Grendel did not show fear until Beowulf grabbed him and would not let go. He realized BeowulfÃ?s strength was stronger than his own and tried unsuccessfully to break free. When finally he was dealt a mortal wound by Beowulf, he crawled back to the swamp to die.
The creature Grendel is the one who taunts Beowulf and the warriors in Herot. Grendel terrorizes the mead hall and its inhabitants, causing fear and destruction until Beowulf arrives to defeat him.
Beowulf was assisted by Wiglaf during his final battle with the dragon. Wiglaf was the only one of Beowulf's warriors who did not flee in fear, and together they were able to defeat the dragon, although Beowulf ultimately succumbed to his wounds.
Wiglaf is the only person who helps Beowulf battle the dragon in the epic poem "Beowulf." He stands by Beowulf's side despite the other warriors fleeing in fear, and together they face the dragon in a fierce battle.
The last of the "weadmundings" referred to in Beowulf is Wiglaf. He is the brave warrior who stands by Beowulf in his final battle against the dragon, despite the other warriors fleeing in fear. Wiglaf helps Beowulf defeat the dragon but is ultimately unable to save him from his fatal wounds.
Grendel feels threatened by Beowulf's challenge and becomes anxious. He is filled with fear, as he knows Beowulf is a formidable opponent who poses a significant challenge to his fighting skills.
Beowulf's men are initially scared and abandon him in fear, except for one loyal warrior named Wiglaf who stays by Beowulf's side to help him fight the dragon.
Beowulf does not kill Grendel's mother because she is also a mother seeking revenge for her son. The Frisian king does not attack Beowulf out of fear and respect for his strength and bravery. Beowulf feels invincible due to his past victories in battles, his belief in fate, and the support of his loyal comrades.
In sections XIX-XXI of Beowulf, the main plot points are: Beowulf prepares to fight the dragon to protect his people, he faces the dragon alone as his warriors retreat in fear, Beowulf's sword fails him in battle, and Wiglaf comes to his aid, helping Beowulf defeat the dragon but also getting wounded in the process.