Grendel and his mother I mean. Grendel was called a troll at one point, but his mother is a sea monster who gave birth to a man-dragon. Although man-dragons aren't unprecedented since Grendel's mother's mate was a dragon. I guess they are trying to say that all mythological creatures in this come from a single race of shape-shifters. It's pretty weird, but I guess it makes sense. I wish they explained their race a bit more in the movie, though. Thoughts?
shareThey are elemental beings, personifications of nature and fate and human thinking. You should think of the movie as a myth, not a fantasy. Don't try to apply standard biology to this.
shareCorrect but we can use Mythical Biology. Grendel and his Mother in the orignal poem were Jotuns. Jotuns in Norse Mythology are viewed in popular culture to be a race of huminoid giants, but if you've done your research, several Jotuns are depicted as hideous and deformed (like Grendel), or as completely inhuman looking (like Grendel's Mother's true form in this movie at least, Fenrir the giant wolf, and Jormungandr the Midgard Serpent). Instead of just being huge humans, the Jotun came in all shapes and sizes, are able to interbreed with both Gods and mortals (in fact, the majority of the Aesir, Beowulf himself, Odin's magical horse Slepnir, and every single human descendent of Odin are part Jotun), many are capable of magic (Utgard-Loki being a prominant example), there are many types of Jotun (Frost Jotun, Fire Jotun, Rhime Jotun, Sea Jotun, etc.), some are human-sized or at least the size of an Aesir/Vanir (Loki, Bestla, Jarnsaxa, Gerdr, etc.) and many are shape-shifters (Loki being a great example). Some are also powerful enough to be called Gods in their own right (Loki, Hel, Skadi, Aegir, Ran, Gerdr, and Mimir are examples of such), and Jotuns are also called a number of names, including Jotnar, jotunns, Ettins, Thurs, Thurse, and Trolls (the original meaning of Trolls anyway). Speaking of Trolls, Grendel was in fact called a Troll in both this movie and the original poem, heavily implying that not only is Grendel and his mother are descendents of Cain, but are also descendents of Ymir (the very first Frost Jotun) as well.
As for what kinds of Jotun the monsters are, I'm not sure what kind Grendel is (asides from being half-Jotun for this movie along with the Dragon), but his Mother is obviously a sea Jotun. She belongs to the same type that Aegir, Ran, their nine daughters, and Jormungandr belong to but is obviously far less powerful. She may be powerful enough that weapons forged by mortals have no effect on her, but magical weapons do. If that's the case, then Wiglaf has a better chance of bashing her skull in with the golden drinking horn (it had shown magical properties) than killing her with his sword.
Welcome to my Nightmare- Freddy Krueger
Good read! Thanks!
shareSome kind of mythical creatures. These aren't well defined in Scandinavian folklore and would have been subject to change over time. You will find big differences between Norwegian and Swedish ideas of what a troll is, for example.
share Dream Demon summed this up quite nicely from the Norse mythology point of view.
But in the context of this movie I think that these monsters Grendel and dragon are representing the nature of their progenitors from the line of their fathers. Mother is always the same and variation depends from who the father really is. Grendel had all the weakness of king Hrothgar. Beofulf's son dragon was upgraded version of Grendel superior in every way Beowulf was to Hrothgar. Grendel's mother is always the same. Beasts come from human side as the product of this unholy bonding. Beowulf "mistake" is much bigger and more dangerous since Beowulf is greater warrior but nevertheless prone to same mistakes and weaknesses as Hrothgar.
So I guess they are half Jotun and half the very essence of what their father really is.
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