'swa hit gedefe bið' - A forthright statement of a precept of the heroic code. Klaeber compares the opening of the Old English poem Genesis, 'it is a great duty for us to praise with our words the Guardian of the heavens' (us is riht micel þæt we rodera weard . . . wordum herigen), but it should be noted that gedefe here is an editorial reconstruction of the illegible manuscript reading.