The Lasting Legacy of Beowulf Evident in the Film: The 13th Warrior

Beowulf is one of the oldest pieces of English literature known to modern man. Countless works of great fiction through the years, from the writings of Tolkein to an episode of Star Trek: Voyager, have drawn inspiration from it. One of the most recent examples of this is the film "The 13^th Warrior," based on the Michael Crichton novel "Eaters of the Dead." There are a number of striking similarities between the two in plot lines, adversaries faced by the protagonist, and the ideologies behind both works.

Like Beowulf, The 13^th Warrior is the story of a band of 13 warriors who travel to help a distant kinsman in trouble. The leader of the band in the film is a Norseman named "Bulvai," a close approximation of Beowulf. The king in need of assistance in the film is named "Wulfgar" and it's said he is the son of "Hrothgar," the name of the king in Beowulf. Both stories have a great hall under siege by a ruthless enemy. In Beowulf its Grendel, a demon, and in the film it's a mysterious tribe of flesh eaters called the "Wendel."

Upon the warriors' arrival, a great feast is prepared and they dine with the king's men. In the film, the king's son is less than pleased with his father's guests and begins to taunt Bulvai. Bulvai calmly responds by saying he's never heard of any great deeds accomplished by the son, other than killing his brothers. This same response is given by Beowulf in response to Hrothgar's son's taunts.

That night, in the film as in Beowulf, the hall is attacked while the warriors lie in wait. A fierce battle ensues, and the warriors are eventually able to drive off the assault, but not without taking some losses.

Eventually, the now-fortified hall is attacked again and the warriors manage to drive off the second assault, but they're told by a soothsayer that they have to kill the "mother" of the Wendel if they wish to end the attacks for good. They track the Wendel to a cave and sneak inside, journeying farther and farther downward until one character asks, "how deep in the earth are we?" and another replies, "deep enough to fall out the bottom." After Bulvai beheads the queen, he and his remaining allies have to swim a great distance underwater to escape their pursuers. This sequence bears a striking similarity to Beowulf's long journey underwater to do battle with Grendel's mother, especially considering Bulvai slays the "mother" of the Wendel. During his fight, Bulvai is poisoned just as Beowulf is poisoned during his final battle with the dragon.

Bulvai, like Beowulf, fights his final battle poisoned. Bulvai manages to kill the general of the Wendel just before falling victim to the poison coursing through his veins just as Beowulf slays the dragon just before dying himself.

Both stories open with the death and burning of a king, and both end with the death of the hero and his funeral pyre.

The order of their appearance is different, but the three main enemies faced by the hero in both stories are strikingly similar. Bulvai and his companions first face the "Fire Worm." The locals believe it to be a fire-breathing dragon, similar to the one faced by Beowulf. It turns out to be a long line of mounted men with torches, but it's not hard to imagine that Crichton drew his inspiration from the literal dragon in the Beowulf story. Later, Bulvai fights the "mother" of the Wendel after a long journey underground. This lines up neatly with Beowulf's journey underwater to face the mother of Grendel. The third major foe Bulvai faces is the Wendel themselves. Their name is far too similar to Grendel to be a coincidence. The Wendel live underground and dress as bears, almost as if they are a hybrid of man and beast. They actually think they are bears and make an effort to live in a manner that closely resembles that of bears. They wear bear-skins and animal horns in battle and fight using weapons designed to emulate claws. They eat human flesh, as an animal might. Clearly, they are meant as a substitute for Grendel in the Beowulf story. Grendel is referred to as an "ent" or "troll," a half-man half-beast entity.

Ideologically, the film seems to follow the Beowulf formula very closely. At its core, Beowulf is really a clash of opposing ideologies: Christianity, or the "new way" vs. Paganism, or the "old way." In the very beginning of the film, as three of the characters are watching the funeral of a king involving a funeral pyre and human sacrifice, one of the characters says: "this is the old way, you won't see it again." At the end of the film, when Bulvai is honored in much the same way, the human sacrifice is absent. The filmmakers seem to be indicating that the "new way" has won out over the "old way" following Bulvai and company's defeat of the Wendel.

Bulvai's culture is one of civilization. The people he defends live in houses, build fences and great halls, and cultivate crops. His adversaries, the Wendel, are savages. They live in a cave, eat human flesh, and think of themselves as animals. Beowulf is about "civilized" men triumphing over the "wilderness" and the frightening creatures who live within it. Bulvai and company conquer the threat of the Wendel and make the land safe for their kinsmen to continue in their civilized ways.

Christianity is a patriarchal ideology, paganism is matriarchal. The culture Bulvai represents has a male leader, the king, and women seem to occupy a lower station than men. The women serve the men and perform all the menial tasks while the men fight and make all the decisions. The Wendel worship a female deity, as evidenced by the idols they carry depicting a large-breasted pregnant figure, seemingly indicating their reverence for fertility and femininity. Their leader is a female, the "mother" of the Wendel. The Wendel represent a pagan matriarchal society that has to perish in order for the new, patriarchal Christian society to move forward.

Michael Crichton is obviously a student of classic literature. It's clear from the marked similarities in plot, adversaries faced by the protagonists, and ideological statements that "The 13^th Warrior" is intended as a slightly-modified retelling of the Beowulf saga. It's a true testament to the original work that even after centuries the story still holds appeal to modern audiences.