The book Grendel by John Gardner and the film Beowulf and Grendel directed by Sturla Gunnarsson both describe the theme of curiosity. In both the book and the film there are characters who have the trait of intellectual curiosity, and there are also those who lack this trait. In the book, Grendel's personality contains this trait and Beowulf's character does not, but in the movie Beowulf is the one with this trait, not Grendel. The character of Grendel in the book and the character of Beowulf in the film both have an intellectual curiosity that seems to drive them to discover the truth. The difference between Grendel's intellectual curiosity in the book and the film is drastic. In the book Grendel always wonders why certain situations and events happen and why people behave in certain ways. Grendel is very curious about humans and wants to discover the truth behind their actions and motivations. In the book, Grendel finds a way into the human world and explores. He travels through the city trying to understand how people interact with each other and with the world (16-45). In this section Grendel watches and learns. It's learning how and why humans do the things they do. Grendel is interested and curious about humans and satisfies his curiosity by observing them and eventually trying to interact with them. In the film, the character of Grendel has a significant difference in his level of intelligence, which makes him less curious about the outside world. In the film Grendel tortures the Danes only out of revenge, because they killed his father. He doesn't try to get to know the people, he doesn't question anything they do, and he doesn't try to understand the reason behind the Danes... half of the paper... part of the actions and decisions that the characters make and the way where the audience sees the characters. The story of Beowulf and Grendel would probably be very important in Anglo-Saxon culture today. This story is about the non-fictional history of the Anglo-Saxons, so they would probably want to study this story because it is part of their history. In the book Grendel and the movie Beowulf and Grendel the values ​​of curiosity and intelligence are two main themes supported by both the book and the movie. Both help teach the true value that asking questions helps raise personal awareness about world events throughout society. Works Cited Beowulf and Grendel. Dir. Sturla Gunnarsson. Perf. Gerard Butler, Sarah Polley and Stellan Skarsgard. Roundstone Communications, 2006. Film.Gardner, John. Grendel. New York: vintage, 1989. Print.