Beowulf, is a long epic poem, one of the oldest poems written in Old English.
The title refers to the name of the best hero in the world, Beowulf. He lived in Geatland, a realm not far from Denmark, (today southern Sweden).In the poem he is described using superlatives and adjectives conveying his value. He was "the mightiest man on earth, high-born and powerful".  Besides, in the text there's written "There was no one like him alive". So, we can deduce that Beowulf is the personification of the Anglo-Saxons values in the Middle-Ages. In fact these were courage and honour, and he risk his life to save the king. Beowulf seems like a divinity. Very important are the verbs "ordered" and "announced" at lines 5-6. They describe the social status of Beowulf.

Thanks to the description of the setting we can understand the importance of the travels and naval routs. As matter of fact a reader can note description of "cliffs enlighted by the sun, deep crags and large promontories" is typical of the coasts of Sweden and Denmark. In addition there's the name of a rout "the swan's road", because in the Middle-Ages usually people named trades and naval routes like goods or animals.

Beowulf isn't described using physical adjectives because during Middle-Ages the exterior aspect wasn't important. Indeed the most important thing of Anglo-Saxons was war, but they were also religious. As matter of fact, in the end of this extract we can notice that characters prayed God, before taking the voyage.