MovieChat Forums > Beowulf (2007) Discussion > Grendel's dialogue

Grendel's dialogue

posted 17 years ago by SuperLobsterBoy
51 replies | jump to latest

I saw the movie the first time and didn't understand a word Grendel said... later I found out that his dialogue is entirely in Old English, which is pretty darn cool. So, the second time I saw the movie I paid attention... and still didn't understand a word. I managed to make out, "He rippen offen mine arm", but that was it. Oh, also the word that sounds like "murder" but judging from his use of it I realize is "mother"... except for the first time he says it, which is when his mother asks what he's been doing, he responds "murder", and she gives him a lecture on what to kill and what not to, so that's a bit confusing when he later uses that same word to mean "mother"... if someone could explain that to me.

Anyway, what are some of Grendel's other lines?

[–] kutsaubb-tuose 17 years ago

Hmm... not to be self-obsessed, but it seemed to me that it was a kind of old scandinavian. They said something about it taking place in Denmark so it would be quite logical. By the way, though it was difficult to understand, it wasen't that far from modern danish - or just the scandinavian langurages. Also mother in danish is "moder"

[–] cut-4 17 years ago

It's in Old English/Anglo-Saxon. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_English_language
As a German I can understand most of the words, it's like a mixture of German and English.

QUESTION: WAS THERE ANOTHER LANGUAGE THE TWO OF YOU WERE SPEAKING?

JOLIE: It's Old English. We had more of it. It was actually great, but I think it went over a lot of people's heads. But, it was fun to learn and it was beautiful.

http://www.moviesonline.ca/movienews_13362.html

[–] sth78 17 years ago

It was Old Norse, norrønt. The Old Norse word for mother is móðir. In the end, he says hann myrdi meg, móðir (he murdered me, mother).

As said in an interview:

Liberties were also taken with the dialogue in the movie. For obvious reasons old English just wouldn't be cricket since no one would understand what is being said.

Although Grendel does say "strong" (hann so strong, móðir). The Old Norse word for "strong" is sterkur in two syllables. This is perhaps a goof.

[–] StanleyKubrick2001 16 years ago

It's Danish, im norwegian and i understood the entire dialogue. Norwegian and danish are essentially the same language.

[–] sth78 16 years ago

Not "Danish" as we know it. As I said, it's norrønt, the Old Norse, from which Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese and a Norwegian dialect called Nynorsk, all derived from.

Also norrønt was the predecessor to norn, a langauage spoken in Shetland and the Orkneys (which were Danish-Norwegian until the 15th century), but that now is extinct due to Anglo-Scottish influence.

But I agree, for Scandinavians it should probably not the very troublesome to understand what Grendel is saying.

[–] pochahontasass 16 years ago

Yeah, I found Grendels dialogue wonderful and immediately thought that it was old nordic that he spoke and so I came here and learned that it was old english which I'm a little skeptic about. Bu maybe it's so. As a swede though I found so many words to be familiar, not at all hard to understand, I think a swedish kid could've understood Grendels dialogue easily.

[–] thom6958 16 years ago

I am danish, and I understood everything Grendel said perfectly well.

For a dane it basically sound like an englishman trying to speak danish, with a danish accent, which fails completely.

[–] fallen_enigma 16 years ago

I rented the DVD yesterday and I watched the making of thing on it and when Neil Gaiman stopped by to talk to the director, they talked about whether or not the old english Grendel spoke in would be easy to understand.

[–] Redai02 16 years ago

...funnily enough, I didn't realize he wasn't speaking English, lol; I understood him- or at least, the intent. I could guess.

The masses are asses...

[–] BB-15 16 years ago

Speaking for myself, since I don't speak Old English or a Scandinavian language, having a main character in an English-language film who is speaking important dialogue in Anglo-Saxon with no subtitles was very distracting. I considered it a major flaw in the movie.

BB ;-)

it's just in my humble opinion - imho -

[–] Pro-reason 16 years ago

I agree that it was a flaw. The fact that there were accents in the Modern English dialogue meant that when I heard the parts in Anglo-Saxon, I had to strain to understand, until I realised it wasn't even in Modern English.

By the way, those writing "Olde English" with an extra "e" on the end are idiots. Learn to spell. Those who keep on saying that he said "murder" are also idiots.

My DVD (rented here in Australia) had the full dialogue in Modern English in the subtitles.

[–] pol-edra 16 years ago

"The fact that there were accents in the Modern English dialogue meant that when I heard the parts in Anglo-Saxon, I had to strain to understand, until I realised it wasn't even in Modern English. "
But wasn't it the point precisely? It surprised me as well how easy it was to understand Grendel's lines, even though they weren't in Modern English; I thought it was surprisingly pleasant how one could understand "Old English" (at least in this movie) with modern English ken. I loved it.

"Sometimes I'm callous and strange."

[–] BarbiCute 15 years ago

why didn't you just use the caption feature in the setup (not trying to be funny). I often do when I'm watching a foreign film or Brittish film --- some of those brogues are hard to understand.

[–] Diabhal 15 years ago

no biff..you getten your damn handses offen her

[–] BrendaLynn 15 years ago

LOL!...I'm your Danesity....

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] QuarrellaDeVil 14 years ago

Hwaet...

I realize I'm responding to a thread initiated years ago, but hell, I just saw this movie the other night. As someone with a language background (in Romance languages, so obviously, this doesn't help me here), I did catch the Old English in the movie, and although I found the Modern English translations in the FAQ, I wondered if any of the more OE-savant folks from this thread can take a crack at transcription. And hats off to you folks in Scandinavia who can better understand -our- language than we can.