In the introduction of Seamus Heaney's Beowulf, "We immediately recognize [the Geat woman's] predicament and the pitch of her grief and find ourselves the better for having them expressed with such adequacy and dignity and unforgiving truth" (xxi). This statement is said in direct correlation to the following entry in the text:

"A Geat woman too sang out in grief; with hair bound up, she unburdened herself of her worst fears, a wild litany of nightmare and lament: her nation invaded, enemies on the rampage, bodies in piles, slavery and abasement" (Lines 3150-3155).

The basis for Heaney's statement is clearly expressed not only in the previous passage, but also in other entries in the final pages of the poem. The first such display of reverence for their [the Geats'] fallen leader appears in lines 3137-3142:

"The Geat people built a pyre for Beowulf, stacked and decked it until...