Also published in 2005 was Alexis E. Fajardo’s Kid Beowulf, which was revised in 2008 as Kid Beowulf and the Blood-bound Oath, the first of a series (Kid Beowulf and the Song of Roland, Kid Beowulf and the Rise of El Cid) of satirical graphic novels featuring characters from the poem but set in a time when Beowulf was young. Fajardo notes that he used a variety of sources, including the Burton Raffel and Seamus Heaney translations, as well as J.R.R. Tolkien’s essay “The monsters and the critics” and the heorot.dk website resource “Beowulf on steorarume” in his research for book one, but is also very clear that his interpretation is not meant to be completely faithful to the original text.
While satirical in nature, Fajardo manages to retain the adventurous spirit of the original even while diverging from it, sometimes wildly (Nagling, the magical talking sword; a visitation by a ghostly Ecytheow) and with a dash of slapstick. In Kid Beowulf, rather than using Hrothgar as the sire of Grendel, which many adaptations have a tendency to do, he uses a cowardly Ecytheow as the father of both Grendel and Beowulf. This does not mean that Hrothgar fares better in this story: here, he is characterized as having raped a Heathobard priestess following a battle, and the child of that rape became Grendel’s mother, seen in the story as a shape-shifter. [Note: the rape scene is not in the 2008- edition. Alexis Fajardo notes: "I worked very hard to excise the harshness of the 2005 edition from this new one (Hrothgar's rape in particular etc.) and the new version has been used in classrooms and for middle-grade readers."] Grendel and his mother are shown sympathetically, and by the end of the first book, Grendel and Beowulf are fighting alongside each other as brothers. One could argue that everything that is manipulated for the sake of instilling humor and modern sensibilities into the story that diverges from the original is distracting, and it may be for purists, but Fajardo also brings in elements of the history of the likely time-frame of the poem. Doing this, he actually helps the reader to see and understand the history of the Heathobards, Scyldings, and Geats that is described in the poem but in a clearer way.
In Kid Beowulf and the Blood-bound Oath, the overall tone is quite different and Fajardo begins with a prologue that retells the Beowulf story, at least of the major battles, using art and text that is starkly different from the rest of the book. In eight pages, he manages to summarize many key scenes, incorporating alliteration throughout. Following this, Fajardo begins his tale with a young Hrothgar and Ogier spying on behalf of their father, King Shild. One major difference between the two books is the inclusion of a dragon as a major character who helps Hrothgar gain the throne and who eventually raises Grendel's mother. In this adaptation, the monsters are seen sympathetically, with Grendel's mother drawn to watch the Danes from a distance, reminiscent of stories such as The Little Mermaid, and featuring a scene with a young Grendel rescuing a goat from a metal trap. In this version, the birth of Grendel and Beowulf is similar, with the difference being that Edgetho is left behind after a battle to be cared for, leading to a physical relationship and the birth of twins by Grendel's mother. Overall, the idea of Beowulf and Grendel working and traveling together remains the same in both books, and this version expands on the historical backgrounds of the various groups of warriors while maintaining the sense of fun.
Find more by Alexis Fajardo here (all recommended): http://kidbeowulf.com/
While satirical in nature, Fajardo manages to retain the adventurous spirit of the original even while diverging from it, sometimes wildly (Nagling, the magical talking sword; a visitation by a ghostly Ecytheow) and with a dash of slapstick. In Kid Beowulf, rather than using Hrothgar as the sire of Grendel, which many adaptations have a tendency to do, he uses a cowardly Ecytheow as the father of both Grendel and Beowulf. This does not mean that Hrothgar fares better in this story: here, he is characterized as having raped a Heathobard priestess following a battle, and the child of that rape became Grendel’s mother, seen in the story as a shape-shifter. [Note: the rape scene is not in the 2008- edition. Alexis Fajardo notes: "I worked very hard to excise the harshness of the 2005 edition from this new one (Hrothgar's rape in particular etc.) and the new version has been used in classrooms and for middle-grade readers."] Grendel and his mother are shown sympathetically, and by the end of the first book, Grendel and Beowulf are fighting alongside each other as brothers. One could argue that everything that is manipulated for the sake of instilling humor and modern sensibilities into the story that diverges from the original is distracting, and it may be for purists, but Fajardo also brings in elements of the history of the likely time-frame of the poem. Doing this, he actually helps the reader to see and understand the history of the Heathobards, Scyldings, and Geats that is described in the poem but in a clearer way.
In Kid Beowulf and the Blood-bound Oath, the overall tone is quite different and Fajardo begins with a prologue that retells the Beowulf story, at least of the major battles, using art and text that is starkly different from the rest of the book. In eight pages, he manages to summarize many key scenes, incorporating alliteration throughout. Following this, Fajardo begins his tale with a young Hrothgar and Ogier spying on behalf of their father, King Shild. One major difference between the two books is the inclusion of a dragon as a major character who helps Hrothgar gain the throne and who eventually raises Grendel's mother. In this adaptation, the monsters are seen sympathetically, with Grendel's mother drawn to watch the Danes from a distance, reminiscent of stories such as The Little Mermaid, and featuring a scene with a young Grendel rescuing a goat from a metal trap. In this version, the birth of Grendel and Beowulf is similar, with the difference being that Edgetho is left behind after a battle to be cared for, leading to a physical relationship and the birth of twins by Grendel's mother. Overall, the idea of Beowulf and Grendel working and traveling together remains the same in both books, and this version expands on the historical backgrounds of the various groups of warriors while maintaining the sense of fun.
Find more by Alexis Fajardo here (all recommended): http://kidbeowulf.com/