when we have read his poem , as a poem , rather than as a collection of episodes , we perceive that he who wrote haleo under heofenum may have meant in dictionary terms 'heroes under heaven ' , or 'mighty men upon earth ' , but he and his hearers were thinking of the eormengrund , the great earth , ringed with garsecg , the shoreless sea , beneath the sky 's inaccessible roof ; whereon , as in a little circle of light about their halls , men with courage as their stay went forward to that battle with the hostile world and the offspring of the dark which ends for all , even the kings and champions , in defeat .