Veronika Traidl, Telling Tales about
Beowulf: The Poem and the Films. Munich: Herbert Utz, 2016.
Reviewed by Oliver M. Traxel
(oliver.traxel@uis.no)
Film makers intending to bring the Old English
epic Beowulf to the screen have one big advantage. In contrast to other
well-known legendary figures, such as King Arthur or Robin Hood, there is only
one surviving manuscript version which can be drawn upon. It is therefore
surprising that none of the films based on this poem has adapted the material
successfully for a modern audience, as has been shown by Nickolas Haydock and
E.L. Risden.[1]
However, they do not treat each film individually, but take them as a group to
be examined with regard to various topics. Moreover, they omit Beowulf
(1972), which Jodi-Anne George has considered the most faithful version so far.[2]
Veronika Traidl’s Munich dissertation remedies this situation by gathering all
films associated with Beowulf and subdividing them into three categories
according to their closeness to the poem. She calls seven of them “major”,
another seven “minor”, and four “marginal”. This attribution makes sense,
though four of the “minor” ones are TV episodes from Star Trek: Voyager
(1995) and Xena: The Warrior Princess (2000); the Xena episodes
even make up a trilogy and could therefore have been treated as one. Another
“minor” film, Animated Epics: Beowulf (1998), is actually a condensed
retelling of the story and therefore very close, but rated as “minor” due to
its brief length of merely 27 minutes.
The introduction contains a chronological list
of the eighteen films and explains the aim and structure of the study: to
provide a comprehensive analysis of each film in several sections focussing on
one particular aspect. Chapter 2 outlines the principles of categorisation as
“major”, “minor” and “marginal” films and offers some brief background
information on all of them. The following chapter treats them in chronological
order and critically discusses the existing academic work. This information is
comprehensive and well researched. The beginning chapters can therefore also
serve as a quick reference guide for anyone who is looking for material on one
specific film version. Chapter 4 gives a general overview of the Old English
poem and gathers academic views on relevant points, such as structure, dating,
and the depiction of religion. This part does not offer anything new, but it is
sound and shows the author’s excellent familiarity with the current state of Beowulf
scholarship. Moreover, it is very helpful to those readers not familiar with
the extant text or who need some refreshing.
With 215 out of 300 pages, Chapter 5 on the
seven major films occupies more than two thirds of the book and can be seen as
the centrepiece of the study. It comprises Beowulf (1972), Beowulf
(1999), The 13th Warrior (1999), Beowulf & Grendel
(2005), Beowulf (2007), Grendel (2007), and Beowulf: Prince of
the Geats (2008). There are no less then fifteen sections dedicated to
specific topics. These concern fundamental points (Contents & structure;
Differences to the poem; Place & time of action), key characters (Beowulf;
Grendel; Grendel’s mother; Hrothgar; Unferth; Queens & other women),
linguistic features (Language; Onomastics), and other important aspects
(Religion; Anachronisms; Motifs; Further aspects). Section 5.2 on “Differences
to the poem” is subdivided into films which omit the dragon fight (four) and
those who include it (three) as it is one of the key elements of the original
plot and therefore merits separate discussion. If a film is irrelevant to a
specific aspect, it is not contained in the section in question. In most cases
this concerns Beowulf (1972), which does not appear in Sections 5.8
(Unferth), 5.11 (Onomastics), 5.13 (Anachronisms), 5.14 (Motifs) and 5.15
(Further aspects). Generally, the entire chapter is remarkable as it covers the
major films in great detail and also gives precise references to the timing of
film passages, line numbers of the original poem as well as secondary
literature. The argumentation can therefore be compared very easily. Moreover,
each section concludes with a table that briefly summarises the most important
points in each film and therefore provides a quick and helpful reference tool.
The following two chapters are devoted to the
seven minor and four marginal films respectively. Besides the summaries they
consist of only two sections each of which mirrors the first two in Chapter 5.
However, while Section 5.2 points out differences to the poem, Section 6.2
deals with both parallels and differences, and Section 7.2 focuses on parallels
only. This alteration of focus makes sense as, in contrast to the major films,
the marginal Clash of the Titans (1981), Predator (1987), Beware:
Children at Play (1989) and No Such Thing (2001) are not directly
based on the poem and it is the determination of parallels rather than
differences which merit their inclusion in this study. In fact, Traidl sees
hardly any similarities to Beowulf in the marginal films and includes
them only as they are associated with the poem in the secondary literature (p.
296). Given this approach she could have referred to even more films in Chapter
7, e.g. Alien (1979), which she mentions on other occasions (p. 118, n.
153; p. 146). The minor films, on the other hand, show greater affinities to
the poem, but have different purposes. Some issues are incorporated into
ongoing TV series, namely Star Trek: Voyager (1995) and three episodes
from Xena: The Warrior Princess (2000), as well as the science fiction
film Outlander (2008). The two remaining minor films are either based on
a modern literary version, namely Grendel, Grendel, Grendel (1981), or
retell the story in rather concise way, namely Animated Epics: Beowulf
(1998).
The book is written by a native speaker of
German (p. 202, n. 246) who shows an excellent command of the English language.
The few linguistic problems could have been fixed by more diligent
proof-reading. They include additional words, as in “but it Grendel” (p. 118)
or “Grendel’s as mother” (p. 141, pic. 22), inconsistencies, as in “cross bow”
(p. 73), “cross-bow” (p. 96) and “crossbow” (p. 110), random usage of “blond”
and “blonde”, with “blonde” also being used for the male form (p. 161) and
“blond” for the female form (p. 188), or the American verbal spelling
“practice” rather than “practise” (p. 203) in the otherwise British English
text. The layout is very tidy, and occasional issues, such as larger empty
spaces near illustrations (pp. 87, 88, 90) or the incorrect division of Old English
words, as in “Ecgth-eow’s” (p. 61), and “Heal-fdene” (p. 221), were probably
caused by the word processing software. German rather than English punctuation
is consistently used for decimals, such as “1,96” and “1,74” (p. 103, nn. 124, 125).
Slightly more problematic is the author’s occasional difficulty in transcribing
film passages correctly, as she even admits herself (p. 209, n. 253). Examples
for Old English include her suggestion of an unattested “clattrym” rather than clatrung
(“noise”), and singular “ēare” rather than plural ēaran (“ears”) (p.
209). Moreover, she does not identify Modern English long-legged in a
passage from Beware: Children at Play (1989), but provides an empty
space instead (p. 294, n. 332), failing to recognise the reference to a
well-known Cornish litany.[3]
Traidl has delivered a remarkably detailed
survey of all film versions of Beowulf produced until 2015. She is also
aware of later projects, such as the TV Series Beowulf: Return to the
Shieldlands (2016), which premiered on ITV after she submitted her study
(p. 300). The task of gathering the material cannot have been easy as the DVDs
of some films, in particular Beowulf (1972) and Beowulf: Prince of
the Geats (2008), are no longer commercially available. In fact, it was the
director of Beowulf (1972) himself, Don Fairservice, who provided her
with a copy (p. 11, n. 21). Traidl was also in touch with others when
researching her study, for example Scott Wegener, the director of Beowulf:
Prince of the Geats (2008) (e.g. p. 264, n. 315), and Karl Hagen, language
consultant for Beowulf (2007) (e.g. p. 209, n. 253), which proves that a
great deal of the argumentation is based on first-hand information. Several
colour screenshots from Beowulf (1972), Beowulf & Grendel
(2005), and Beowulf: Prince of the Geats (2008) are found throughout,
whereas no free rights could be obtained for the other major films. Quotations
from Beowulf are from Klaeber’s latest edition,[4]
while translated passages are from Heaney,[5]
which are of course seminal primary works and therefore well chosen. The book
is diligently researched, has hardly any shortcomings, and will doubtless
remain the reference work on Beowulf films for the time being. Any
supplements whenever a new version comes out would also be very welcome. It can
only be hoped that one day there will also be a film that is actually good.
Oliver M. Traxel
University of Stavanger
University of Stavanger
[1] Nickolas Haydock and E. L. Risden, Beowulf on Film: Adaptations and Variations. Jefferson, NC, and London: McFarland & Company, 2013.
[2] Jodie-Anne George, Beowulf: A Reader’s Guide to Essential Criticism.
Basingstoke: Palgrave McMillan, 2010, pp. 115-149.
[5] Seamus Heaney, ed., Beowulf: A New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney.
Bilingual Edition. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000.
