THE SETTING

In the extract the setting has an important role, indeed the text is about the travel of Beowulf. the first reference to the setting is given at line 2: 'over' creates an idea of somewhere very far away,in the reader's mind.
All the following expressions refer to sea. As a metter of fact the reader can find nouns like 'waves', 'swan's road', 'coast'..that contribute to create the setting of a sea landscape.
Even if sea with currents and cliffs may be dangerous, in the extract it's very quite; indeed from line 24 ('over the waves') the reader can understand that Beowulf and his crew didn't find a rough sea but on the contrary they could 'flew like a bird'.
At the same time the setting isn't a 'simple' one, the narrator didn't set the story in a valley: this choice is remarkable because using the sea as a setting he highlights the skills as seafarers (at line 28 he uses the expression 'those seafarers').