The Thirteenth Warrior

The 13th warrior has many similarities with Beowulf; I'm not talking about the obvious ones such as names either. The first one that comes to mind is from one of the first scenes, funerals. Although there is not three funerals throughout the film, they definitely portray how Beowulf and people during his time viewed death. After the actual burial or cremation, the funeral is a celebration. No one mourns for the dead because they are comfortable with it and have excepted that it is the way of life. They celebrate the death of their king in both beginnings of Beowulf and The Thirteenth Warrior. The elaborate and exciting funerals show that the kings must have been brave and honorable to be celebrated by everyone. The same is for the Funeral of Beowulf and Buliwyf. Both of them have large celebrations for their death. Even though Buliwyf was not as superior or manly as Beowulf, he was just as respected as Beowulf was. He was the leader that they fell on to guide them throughout the movie. Another similarity that the movie shares with Beowulf is the battles.

Yes the movie still has a Grendel, his mother, and a dragon. I, however, do not find this to be the important part of the battles, but more of the number of battles. Beowulf is shaped around three different brawls. The first with Grendel, his mother, and then the dragon. In each battle, Beowulf equips himself accordingly; wearing no armor for Grendel but then gradually wearing more and more. Controversially, in the movie Buliwyf continues to wear less and less armor. There are also four battle scenes, but they take place over a period of three days (at least I think they do). Beowulf's three battles set the time period for the fighting scenes of the movie. This is important because it shows that the movie follows the same structure as the epic poem. Beginning and ending with a funeral also shows this.

Another similarity that I saw between the two is the importance of honor. When Beowulf arrives to help out Hrothgar, he is put on the spot. His awesomeness gets questioned because he lost the swimming race. Beowulf snaps back wittingly that he only lost because he killed all of the sea monsters in that area. He also asks what Unferth has done to make him eligible to mock him. Antonio has to do the same thing in The 13th Warrior (sort of). At first, he is being made fun of for being an outsider. Some of the other men bring up his mother. It is not until he talks back in their language that they are a little impressed with him, but not quite. Before they ride out the next day, he must prove that he is capable of riding a horse well. But to finally win every one over, he has to make a sword that suits him properly and use it in front of them. Honor is an important part of both Beowulf and the movie; most likely because they deal with the same era and people.