Grendel's dialogue

not in any way German.

For the record, Grendel's lines were spoken in Old English, which is the form the original poem was spoken in (although, in the poem, Gredel did not speak, per se). Old English, for the most part, was a mixture of Germanic and Latin. Modern English has many roots and even more derivations. Seamus Haney does a terrific job of translating the Old English into the Modern English in his Beowulf. One side of the page is the original Old English; the other is Haney's translation. Tale a look at it and try reading the left side before looking at the right. It's fascinating reading.

"She's, like, a biscuit older than me..."

That probably was said. I don't know, I was suffering from internal hemmoraging while watching, but I still got the jist of the movie. I do recall that last one though, which would be, "(Ic)not daemon." In true blue Anglo-Saxon, this would be, (Ic)ne daemon, which is literally translated "I not deamon." Like I said before, vulgar Anglo-Saxon.

“Gæð a wyrd swa hio scel”
"Fate will forever go in one direction"

Also, "Hearrrt aermm sooo." Hurt arm so.

if all you people heard german it makes sense since old english is from the same family branch as german.


the english language has more in common with swedish and german than it does with spanish and french. we just borrowed alot of words from spanish and french. but in reality were closer to german.

it was in old english and they had more cases than our present day english does. so, you can understand it somewhat when you hear it, but its hard to think in terms of the cases which we dont use.

þæt wæs god cyning

if you take a phonetics or linguistics course, or even a history of the english langage course... its not too bad. that sentence up there says that was a good king. its all about saying words outloud and comparing them to words we say now.

they kept grendel's dialogue pretty simple so that it was easy to understand when spoken. then again i took a few classes on phonetics and old english and such. but if youve never heard old english spoken aloud, its hard to understand.

but it gets easier in time.

I'm pretty sure that IMDB has the entire Anglo-Saxon conversations:


What is Grendel saying?


He is speaking in Olde English (sometimes called the Anglo-Saxon language), from which modern English is derived. It is closer to its German roots. Here are his lines, translated (some of Grendel's mother's words are in Olde English as well):

(In Grendel's Lair, after his first attack)

GRENDEL'S MOTHER: Grendel, what have you done? What have you done, Grendel?

GRENDEL: Mother?

GRENDEL'S MOTHER: Fish and wolf and bear, and sheep or two, but not men.

GRENDEL: Men? They are small.

GRENDEL'S MOTHER: Men, Grendel. They have slain so many of our kind.

GRENDEL: The men screamed! The men bellowed and screamed! The men hurt me, hurt my ear.

GRENDEL'S MOTHER: Was Hrothgar there?

GRENDEL: I did not hurt him, I did not hurt him, no.

GRENDEL'S MOTHER: Good. Good boy, and tender.

GRENDEL: Mother....

_____________

(Beowulf and Grendel battle in the mead hall)

BEOWULF: Your bloodletting days are finished, demon.

GRENDEL: I am not a demon.

BEOWULF: It speaks. It speaks!

GRENDEL: What are you?

BEOWULF: I am ripper, tearer, slasher, gouger....

______________

(Grendel returns to his lair)

GRENDEL'S MOTHER: Grendel. My son. My poor son.

GRENDEL: Mother. They hurt me, Mother.

GRENDEL'S MOTHER: Sleep now, my son.

GRENDEL: He murdered me, Mother.

GRENDEL'S MOTHER. Who murdered you, my son?

GRENDEL: He ripped off my arm.

GRENDEL'S MOTHER: He will pay, my darling. Who was the man?

GRENDEL: He was so strong. So strong.

GRENDEL'S MOTHER: Who was the man?

GRENDEL: His name was Beowulf.

GRENDEL'S MOTHER: Beowulf.

my friend has the movie and it doesn't have subtitles on grendle's lines.