‘If Grendel wins, it will be a gruesome day;
he will glut himself on the Geats in the war-hall,
swoop without fear on that flower of manhood
as on others before. Then my face won’t be there
to be covered in death: he will carry me away
as he goes to ground, gorged and bloodied;
he will run gloating with my raw corpse
and feed on it alone, in a cruel frenzy,
fouling his moor-nest.’
– Beowulf, Seamus Heaney (trans.)
Lines 442-450: Beowulf imagines the gruesome consequences for him and his corpse if Grendel defeats him.