Beowulf and the 13th warrior compare&contrast

After the poem Beowulf (the destroyer of monsters, an Old English heroic epic poem of a courageous and powerful, well known warrior), and the movie The Thirteenth warrior (an Arab accompanies a band of Northmen in a quest to destroy the Wendol, Based on the book Eaters of the dead, which is a playful version of the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf. ) you can notice a similar story plot between them. Beowulf dated between the 8th and the early 11th century, takes place in Denmark and Sweden.

It begins with the story of King Hro? gar, telling the story of a big and powerful monster awakening from his sleep, angry and bitter kills and consumes Hro? ar’s warriors and people. Beowulf, a young warrior from Geatland, hears of Hro? gar’s troubles and with his king’s permission leaves his homeland to help Hro? gar. The thirteenth warrior takes place in AD 922, In Arab courtier Ahmad Ibn Fadlan’s point of view; a nomadic Arab traveler banished from his home land comes across a band of Norse warriors having a Viking funeral of their dead king. He meets his son, the new king, Boulvine. In the morning they see a child who’s come from a faraway land to tell them of the evil that mustn’t be named and asks for help.

A witch comes in and summons 13 warriors, the 13th mustn’t be a Northman, since he’s the only non-Northman their he’s coerce him into joining them when they are summoned to fight mysterious creatures that mustn’t be named. They both travel by boat and are greeted by the king’s thane. Beowulf and the geats drinks and party to whereas the 13 warriors strengthen the village’s defense. They are both attacked at night. The 13 warriors are together and ready to face the monsters to whereas the Beowulf and his men are passed out from partying.

They both destroy the monster but in Beowulf’s story he does it by himself and the 13 warriors do it as a group effort. Beowulf does it for fame and because he loves destroying evil monsters as a heroic warrior with supernatural powers. The 13 warriors do it for the safety of the people, they don’t expect rewards. Both groups have to face the mother of evil. Both die as kings: Boulvine goes to the lair of the wendol mother, at the top of the mountain. When he confronts her she pricks him with poison then he chops her head off. He doesn’t have very much time to live; he fights his 3rd battle immediately after the 2nd.

The great king gets all the people to fight with him in his last battle to kill the wendol with the horns of power. He does so and the rest back off. As he’s dyeing, Boulvine wishes to be remembered. The 13th warrior travels back to his home land and writes a book about the great king, Boulvine. Beowulf (alone) goes into the underwater lair where he faces Grendel’s mother. His weapons are blunt against her skin. Her claws are blunt against his mail shirt. Beowulf sees a big sword made by monster, cursed with fatality, hanging on the wall. He lifts it with his great strength and swings it at Grendel’s mom cutting off her head.

Beowulf doesn’t fight for 50 years. When he’s an old man Beowulf goes on his last mission to fight and angry dragon looking for his stolen gold. Beowulf and his men hike up the mountain to the dragon’s lair and he makes a loud battle cry echoing into the dragons cave. Knowing men had arrived, the dragon blasted fire out his cave; Beowulf blocked the fire’s heat with his shield. The dragon approached closer and the shield began to melt. He tried to stab the dragon with his sword but it broke into his scaly skin leaving a gash but not doing as much damage as expected. His weapons failed and Beowulf isn’t as strong as he once was.

Faith fought against him for this one battle he actually needed help but all his men ran away like cowards when they saw that now even Beowulf could defeat the dragon, all but one wiglaf who refused to run away and helped his king. Together they defeated the dragon and won the dragons treasure and the treasure of a great new leader, wiglaf, to take Beowulf’s place. Beowulf dies form a slash to the throat from a dragon. Both boulvine’s and Beowulf’s bodies are cremated. A tomb is left with the dragon’s gold and Beowulf’s ashes as a reminder of his greatness, 12 of his greatest geats spread his story. One poem remains of the story.