Am I imagining things or is Angelina Jolie playing Grendel's mother in the Beowulf film?

[EffiePerine]

I certainly don't remember her trying to seduce Beowulf in the poem .

lol, yes it is.

I think the use of the word 'seduce' is in the sense of 'try to rip his head off and tear him limb from limb'. Obviously. I suppose you could define it as extreme S&M?

Anway....according to the Independent Grendels mother is a potrayal of the ancient female principle in religion that was being suppressed by the new patriarchal religions. So I suppose it might make some sort of sense. It will be interesting to see this ...erm... interpretation.

Right. So that's OK then. I mean, she is described in a fairly detailed way as a monster (don't remember any refs to large norks anyway). Think I will steer well clear in the interest of my blood pressure...

BUT BUT BUT it's a MONSTER story! It's about monsters and chopping them up and BIG PILES of gold and boats and stuff. It doesn't need sex, surely?

You wouldn't think so effie, you wouldn't think so.......

wanders off muttering about Tolkein dealing with all this rubbish years ago...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beowulf:_The_Monsters_and_the_Critics

don't think he'd be keen on a feminist critique either. Have you read Seamus Heaney's version? It's amazing

am i missing something is this a tolkein work then [hangs head in comp school english top group shame]

not just a random film then ?????

the wikipedia link just confsed me more

It's an Old English poem - basically a good monster story with herioc overtones

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beowulf

monster kills soldiers, hero kills monster, monster's mum comes along for a word, hero kills monster's mum, hero goes back home and is killed by dragon. With swords and BIG PILES OF GOLD.

Tolkein wrote a famous article on Beowulf arguing that it was being used as an academic text rather than a rattling good story

Message withdrawn

very good link thank you i fancied the film just coz ray winstone is init now i can look scholarly too

I confess I haven't 'read' it at all effie as an adult. At school only. I did read a children's version of it to DS~1 a few years back and was taken aback by how violent it was....which proves how little I remembered about it DS wasn't slightly concerned.

I would really recommend the Seamus Heaney version - not a straight translation but more an interpretation. He uses lots of Scots and NI words which works really well.

www.amazon.co.uk/Beowulf-New-Translation-Seamus-Heaney/dp/0571203760/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books &qid=1194960529&sr=8-1

I would like to read it to, maybe it'll go on my christmas list.

sorry, too

any one know where we can get th3e kiddies version from so we can nderstand the film before we go to see it

Im sure I read the children's version when I was a child, didnt really understand it then.

But I was sure grendel and his mother were big nobbly ugly things!

Er, no, she's not a big nobbly ugly thing in the film, Fubsy. Though she may cause you to re-evaluate your opinion of plaits

No, she emerges naked from a pool, covered in what looks like a thin chocolate coating..and of course, authentically, full make-up, just as Grendel's mum would have done.
This made me think...they weren't that bothered about accuracy, were they??

Wasn't the whole point (in the film at least) that she is so beautiful (or appears as such so the old king, and then to Beowulf) that the men are seduced.

And I thought that the whole reason why Beowulf became estranged from the queen was that he knew that he had betrayed her because he had fallen in love with Grendel - and sired the next monster? Therefore the theme here was about power and betrayal.

Or was that just me being thick/getting the wrong end of the stick?

to the old king

yes Santa..the revisting of sins thing as well...but..as you imply, that isn't the Beowulf story.....more like an episode of Eastenders.

Which is where Ray Winstone comes in, obviously!

indeedy.....I am sure Beowulf would not have said.."I have come to kill your monsta.."