I did make some references to the Book of Enoch; there is some literature of varying qualities discussing the possible influence of Enoch on Beowulf.  Here is a relevant passage from the beginning of Enoch relating to Grendel's lineage from Cain, for anyone who may be interested:

And thence I went elsewhither, to the mountain of hard rock. And therein were four hollow places, deep and wide and very smooth; how smooth are the hollow places and deep and dark to behold!
Then Raphael answered, one of the holy angels who was with me, and said to me: “These hollow places have been made for this same purpose that the spirits of the souls of the dead should gather therein, yea that all the souls of men’s children should here gather. And these places have been made to take them until their day of judgement and until their appointed time, until the great judgment cometh upon them.”
Then I saw a dead man making suit, and his voice went forth to heaven for his sake.  And I asked Raphael the angel who was with me, and I said to him:  “This spirit which maketh suit, whose is it, whose voice goeth forth and bringeth suit unto heaven?”
And he answered me saying:  “This is the spirit which went forth from Abel whom his brother Cain slew, and he maketh his suit against him until his seed be blotted out from the face of the earth and his seed be blotted out from among men's seed.”
Then I asked after it and after all the hollow places:  “Why is one sundered from the other?”
And he answered and said to me:  “These three have been made that the spirits of the dead might be set apart.  And such a division hath been make for the souls of the righteous, wherein there is the bright spring of water.  And such hath been made for sinners when they die and are buried in the earth and judgment hath not been wreaked on them in their lifetime.  Here shall their souls be set apart in great pain until the great doomsday and punishment and torment of them who curse for ever and retribution for their souls.  There shall he bind them for ever; and such a lot hath been made for them, their spirits who make their suit, who confess their destruction when they were slain in the days of sinners.  Such hath been made for men’s spirits who were not righteous but sinners, who were full of transgression, and of the transgressors shall they be mates; but their spirits shall not be slain on doomsday nor shall they be raised thence.”

If Dr Fleming wishes to let participants do more directing, then perhaps, since we have people here with knolwedge of Germanic languages, literature, and history, some other work of Germanic literature would be appropriate if we dont go to the Song of Roland.

I tend to agree with you professor, although I would put myself in the category of not liking it. The last time I saw Dr. Fleming I offered an unsolicited suggestion that he see 'No Country for Old Men.' It was if I had suggested he try Mogan David as a wine to compliment his medium rare, Kansas City strip sirloin --seared and grilled to tender and juicy perfection. I make no defense to his stern tongue lashing --it was all true -- except for me, the movie portrayed an actual sign of the times, albeit the evil of our times.
For my penance I suggest we read The Song of Roland and then Cochin. Or Cochin and then Roland. It is in praise of rear guard efforts ( like the ones we "Unpatriotic American" types are supposedly fighting ) as well as honor, friendship and other permanent things we hold dear.

As much as I enjoy movies, I am not so ready to call them art in any sense that might include the symphonies of Haydn or even the novels of Dickens. There is too much easy trickery in film, and as the years go by, and films become more what they are and less novels or plays turned into movies, the evils of the form become more and more apparent. The nearest to art film has reached has been 1) good silents, where the absence of dialogue forces the director to work hard (Note how John Ford, a silent director originally, cared so little about dialogue) and 2) a few films made by artsy directors, nearly all foreign, like Fellini, Bergman, and Kurosawa. My favorite movies tend to be based on good scripts. Preston Sturgis was a playwright before going to Hollywood and his screen plays could mostly be performed on stage--though he did make excellent use of locations in Sullivan's Travels, The Palm Beach Story, etc.

Back to Beowulf: Let's wrap up next week by talking about the Dragon episode, and even before we are through, let us pick another book. At some point, I want to do Cochin, but before then, what? This time I will take the most appealing (easiest for me) suggestion, and will try to steer a course between earlier discussions, which always included long-winded posts from me, and this discussion, which has been directed more by the participants.

A year ago or so I was dumb enough to obtain the movie "Beowulf and Grendel" from the Brevard library. I didn't think it was at all faithful to the spirit. Grendel was avenging himself because his father was killed in front of him by Hrothgar's people. There seemed to be lots of modern, moral relativist thinking in the film. I also thought the red-headed slut character (who at one point is raped by Grendel and also beds down with Beowulf) was ridiculous. She reminded me of one of the hate-the-world "goth" (no-pun-intended) girls I attended high-school with. About the only thing that was good was the cinematography. "The Thirteenth Warrior" is a less objectionable (albeit even further from the original) version.

I don't think this sort of thing lends itself to film treatment. In retrospect, I'd spend my time reading an alternative translation or some of the critical essays I haven't got to yet.

I also haven't bothered with watching Brad Pitt as Achilles.