"I know your valour and what you are. Why need you speak of it?

If now beside the ships all the best of us were to assemble

for a hidden position, and there man's courage is best decided,

where the man who is a coward and the brave man show themselves clearly:

the skin of the coward changes color one way and another,

and the heart inside him has no control to make him sit steady,

but he shifts his weight from one foot to another, then settles firmly

on both feet, and the heart inside his chest pounds violent

as he thinks of the death spirits, and his teeth chatter together:

but the brave man's skin will not change colour, nor is he too much

frightened, once he has taken his place in the hidden position,

but his prayer is too close as soon as may be in bitter division:

and there no man could make light of your battle strength or your hand's

work.

Even were you to be wounded in your work with spearcast or spearstroke,

the weapon would not strike behind your neck, nor in your back, 

but would be driven straight against the chest or belly

as you made your way onward through the meeting of champions."