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Then loathsome snouts snickered by me,
swarmed at my throat. I served them out
with my good sword, gave them what they asked for:
Beowulf, trans. by M. Alexander, Penguin Classics, Great Britain, 1973, p.68.
PLACE: Denmark.
TIME: 5th - 6th century.
CIRCUMSTANCE: Sound of fishes. Beowulf tells about his fight with the sea-beasts.
The crash in the banqueting-hall came to the Danes,
the men of the guard that remained in the building,
with the taste of death. The deepening rage
of the claimants to Heorot caused it to resound.
...
Fear entered into the listening North Danes, as that noise
rose up again strange and strident. It shrilled terror
to the ears that heard it through the hall's side-wall,
the grisly plaint of God's enemy,
his song of ill-success, the sobs of the damned one
bewailing his pain. ...
Beowulf, trans. by M. Alexander, Penguin Classics, Great Britain, 1973, p.75 .
PLACE: Denmark.
TIME: 5th - 6th century.
CIRCUMSTANCE: The sound of the fight between Beowulf and the monster Grendel. The screams of fear and agony of the monster caused terror in those who were able to hear it. Heorot is the name of an enormous hall built by one of the kings of the Danes (Hrothgar). Its site was probably near modern Lejre, Roskilde, Zealand (Heorot: hart - a royal beast, to be seen on the sceptre found at Sutton Hoo) p. 174-175.
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