‘Time and again, when the goblets passed and seasoned fighters got flushed with beer they would pledge themselves to protect Heorot and wait for Grendel with whetted swords. But when dawn broke and day crept in over each empty, blood-spattered bench, the floor of the mead-hall where they had feasted would be slick with slaughter.’

Beowulf, Seamus Heaney (trans.)

Lines 480-487: Hrothgar keeps the men in line by keeping them drunk.