And now the timbers trembled and sang,
a hall-session that harrowed every Dane
inside the stockade: stumbling in fury,
the two contenders crashed through the building.
The hall clattered and hammered, but somehow
survived the onslaught and kept standing:
it was handsomely structured, a sturdy frame
braced with the best of blacksmith’s work
inside and out.
– Beowulf, Seamus Heaney (trans.)
Lines 766-774: For all the details on the two fighters Beowulf and Grendel, the poet reminds us that what is at stake is the symbol of cosmic order.