I was thinking about how (at least one of) these movies might be really interesting to see, what with one being helmed by Zemeckis/Roger Avary/Neil Gaiman and the other starring Stellan Skarsgard and Sarah Polley and working with the incredible Seamus Heaney translation. Is this the bastardization of a tale that epitomizes the art of literally telling a story? shouldn't Grendel be left to the imagination, i mean it really makes the character so much darker and intangible. I guess this kinda lets me down because, moreso than usual, this is a work i am proud to have a very distinctive version of locked into my head which will now be ripped to pieces. just thinking out loud, really...

but then it's not like I'd remember the story if all I had to go on was my 6th grade English teacher so i guess publishing it as written word is just as much a bastardization of the tale as a film would be...

on a side note, i'm utterly shocked that Mel Gibson hasn't started an epic bible movie by now...

You read Beowulf in 6th Grade? What the Hell? Is it just Georgia or does that seem a little young to teach that. Wait I was in Illinois for 6th and 7th grade and we were not even close to touching something liek Beowulf

i didn't read it in 6ht grade, but i had a very dedicated storyteller of a teacher (so much so that his students would come back years later on halloween to hear his ghost stories) at the time who would read it to us... though i'm pretty sure the racier parts he'd stick to the old english side of the page. also, this was when i was still in a private school. in PA.

I see what you mean cotton, and I think it's like anything adapted. They're probably going to fuck up what your version is. Funny thing is, every time I hear Grendel,I think of the late, great Dr. Thompson, and his description of Nixon as Grendel.

I didn't read Beowuld until 10th grade, but we had to read The Iliad and The Odyssey in 6th grade..much the same way, we all kind of tried to follow along while our teacher read it, and then explained what was going on. And I was in a DoD school, famous for emplying reprobates and drunken housewives. But, I guess this was the 'gifted' class.