They weren’t heavy references, though – calling the monsters “Grendels”, asnd using the title “Legacy of Heorot”. You could read that book with no knowledge of Beowulf and not be bothered by it. (The sequel has even less about Beowulf, pretty much contained in the title “Beowulf’s Children”). I mentioned Legacy of Heorot in my piece above, comparing the recent movie Outlander to it. My point there was that the idea of Grendel as an extraterrestrial lizard-like relatively intelligent and FAST beast seemed a parallel, and possibly resulting from a reading of Legacy. There’s more of Beowulf in Outlander than there is in Legacy.
Maybe. But if you read Crichton’s book, he explicitly said that he was writing it in order to make Beowulf interesting and readable. Which I think he did. The Earlier Crichton is much better and more readable than Later Crichton. Although I think Later Crichton did a good job of adapting it to the screen.
Now that would be an interesting parallel world in which to live. :eek:
I couldn’t find that anyone mocked one of these up, but I found this:
Then I found THIS, which blew my mind
Iyt’s the Beowulf Coloring Book!
http://shopping.yahoo.com/950079235-beowulf/;_ylt=A2KJ3CV.SrJSrV8AZnBgmolQ?bfr=0.0
and Stories of Beowulf told to Children:
Beowulf in Dover’s Children Classics!
There are lots more of these. Kids are more sophisticated these days, OI guess. Or being raised on A Nightmare on Elm Street has desensitized them. Or something.
OMG, Beowulf Meets Dracula. However did they restrain themselves from doing Beowulf Meets the Wolfman…???
I guess we should thank all that’s holy that we haven’t been treated to Beowulf Meets One Direction. (Yet.)
Continuing the saga:
They’d Sing! And they’d sing!
AND they’d SING! SING! SING! SING!
And the more Grendel thought of this Geat-Midwinter-Sing,
The more Grendel thought, "I must stop this whole thing!
"Why, for fifty-three years I’ve put up with it now!
I MUST stop MidWinter from coming!
....*But HOW?"*
Then he got an idea!
An awful idea!
GRENDEL
GOT A WONDERFUL, AWFUL IDEA!
“I know just what to do!” Grendel laughed in his throat,
And he made a quick Allfothr hat and a cloak.
And he chuckled, and clucked, "What a Grendel-ly sin!
“With this cloak and this hat, I look just like Odinn!”
“All I need is a wolf…”
Grendel looked around.
But, since wolves are quite rare, there was none to be found.
Did that stop Grendel…?
No! Grendel simply said,
“If I can’t find a wolf, then I’ll make one instead!”
So he called on his Mom. Then he took some black thread
And he tied a Wolf-Skin to the top of her head.
THEN
He loaded some bags
And one sack or another
On a ramshackle sleigh
And he hitched up his Mother.
Then Grendel said “Giddyap!”
And the sleigh started to fall
Toward Heorot where the Geats
Lay a-snooze in their Hall.
“Pardon me,” said Grendel
To the revelling crowd
“But the sound of your party
Is really too loud”
“I have beastly dreams
That really won’t keep
And because of your party
I can’t get to sleep.”
“And because your good manners
Did sadly desert you
I have no other choice
But to brutally hurt you.”
So Grendel proceeded
To tear up the hall
He broke all the kegs
And put a crack in the wall
He broke up the skulls
Of those who celebrated
Where he put the Roast Beast
Is best left unstated.
Getcher own thread!
The above is non-canonical.
Non canon, eh? Would it be called the Geisel Apocrypha? Or is it just plain heretical?
Non-canon, but I can’t think of a better place to put it.
A beast named Grendel thought noise
From the mead hall Heorot annoys
So he made all the Geats
Into his personal good eats
And all of their skulls into toys.
Oh, as for other pop-culture influence from Beowulf, the trolls in D&D clearly have Grendel as one of their influences: In Second Edition, at least, it’s explicitly possible to wrestle an arm off of a troll. I don’t know when this bit of lore entered the game, though.
Ummm. Beowulf was a Geat, but Hrothgar of Heorot and his people were Danes.
I know, but I was proud of my Geats/Good Easts rhyme.
This thread is the most awesome thing I’ve read in a while.
Fixed it over here to prevent further hijacking.
“Geats” is funnier than “Danes”
—Mark Twain Autobiography, Vol. II p. 167 (Entry for August 10, 1906)
To continue…
All the smokeholes were dark. Quiet snow filled the Mall
All the Geats were dreaming sweet dreams after all.
When he came to the first family’s corner in the Hall
“This is stop number one,” The old Grendel hissed
And he climbed to the roof, empty bags in his fist.
Thenb he crept through the hole, a rather tight handle,
But, if Alfothr could do it, then so could Grendel.
He got stuck only once, one his way to his goal
Then he stuck his head out of the rooftop smoke hole.
And he saw the Geat clothing strung out in a row
“This clothing,” he grinned," is the first thing to go!"
Then he slithered and slunk, with a smile like Grey Poupon
Around the whole corner, and he took every weapon!
Brystharnisk! and Skjold! Lanse ! and Okse!
Dolke! And svaerd! And Stridshandske!
And he stuffed them in bags. Then Grendel , with great craft,
Stuffed all the bags, one by one, through the draft!
Then he slunk to the storage-pity. He took the Geat’s feast!
He took the Geat-pudding! He took the Roast Beast!
He cleaned out the stone-lined hole, with a Grendelly snarl.
Why Grendel even took their last piece of kaestur hakarl!
Then he stuffed all the food up the smokehole with glee
“And NOW!” grinned Grendel ,“I will stuff up the tree!”
And Grendel grabbed the tree, and he started to shjove
When he heard a small sound like the coo of a dove.
He turned around fast, and he saw a small Geat!
Little Cindy-Lou Geat, who was very petite.*
Grendel had been caught by this tiny Geat-dottir
Who’d got out of bed for a cup of cold water.
She stared at Grendel and said “Alfothr, why,
Why are you taking our Jul Log? WHY?”
But you know, that old Grendel was so smart and so slick
He thought up a lie, and he thought it up quick!
“Why my sweet little barn,” the vfake Odinn he lied,
"I’m afraid that this log will not light on this side.
"So I’m taking it back to my workshop, my dear.
“I’ll fix it up there. Then I’ll bring it back here.”
And his saga fooled the child. The he patted her head
And he got her a drink and he sent her to bed.
And when Cindy-Lou Geat went to bed with her cup,
HE went to the chimney and stuffed the log up!"
Then the last things he took
Were the logs for the fire!
Then he went up the smokehole himself, the old thing.
On the walls he left nothing but smoked and some string
And the one speck of food
That he left in their place
Was a crumb that was even too small for a mus.
*Thanks to Prof. Pepperwinkle
Full disclosure, and odd fact – My father-in-law actually named his youngest daughter, Pepper Mill’s youngest sister, Cynthia Louise, so that her name would be Cindy-Lou.