A Comparison of Beowulf, Alien, and Aliens:
             It would never occur to one to compare the great medieval tale "Beowulf" with the Common Era horror films Alien and Aliens, but in doing so you uncover some very striking similarities. Beowulf is the story of a Geat who upon hearing of the horrific doings of this monster figure named Grendle, sails to Hrothgars land and prepares to do battle with the Grendle. Alien is the tale of a group of navigators on a space craft who receive an unknown signal from what is thought to be a possible wrecked ship, but what they find is much more horrific. In a way, the two stories start off rather similar, there is a distress signal from a distant place and the two "crews" (Beowulf's men and the crew from Alien) go off to investigate and find a solution if necessary. The alien crew goes down to analyze and bring back with them a face eater. This creature implants the alien into the crewman and the alien is born. Aliens, the sequel to Alien is also comparable to the tale of Beowulf dealing with hunting down the Aliens, or in Beowulf's case, Grendles mother.
             Looking at the way the Aliens and Grendle are introduced, you don't get a real sense of what either of them looks like until right before they are terminated. In Beowulf only details of Grendles actions are given at first and for the most part a deep description is never given forcing the reader to use his or her imagination, having only the details of his wrath over Hrothgars men. But in Aliens the use of the camera offers a different perspective, you are not shown what the creature actually looks like until the baby pops from the commanders chest, which is towards the late mid section of the film. The full size alien is shown shortly after that but only once do you get a real good look at it until the end when it is cast into space.
             The way in which the two creatures act
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