Got Medieval is perplexed over the role of Angelina Jolie's role as "queen of darkness" in one of the new Beowulf movies, primarily because there is no queen of darkness in Beowulf.
The speculation on AnSaxNet was that she would be playing Thryth, who had a bad habit of killing off suitors. Now, I wouldn't call that a "queen of darkness," but to call it "anti-social" would be a little understated.
As with many shrews in literature, all Thryth really needed was the discipline of a good man to tame her, which she eventually received.
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According to the Neil Gaiman link you provided earlier, Jolie is indeed playing Grendel's mother and the "queen of darkness" thing is lazy reporting.
ReplyDeleteTwo days ago we got a Variety article and a Hollywood Reporter article. Variety described Angelina Jolie as playing "the Queen of the Night" or somesuch, and added some details that I think they'd either made up or misunderstood or just got from someone who hadn't actually read the script. The Hollywood Reporter simply described her, accurately, as playing Grendel's Mother.
ReplyDeleteThe comments can be found at this link under the Friday comments.
Is no one else disturbed by the idea of Grendel being portrayed as King Hrothgar's son? and the dragon a son of Beowulf? Why can't someone script the poem as written?
ReplyDeleteI've just read an article on the technology they're using to make Angela Jolie's character look more beautiful in the film. What the hell? She's playing Grendel's mother. Both her and Grendel are depicted as large troll-like creatures in the poem. It doesn't seem as though Zemeckis has read the original story.
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