('When my eye mists and my hearing fails and my nose goes cold and my tongue curls back and my face falls in'... ). Identification of impending death was important to medieval man. The sacrament of extreme unction had to be administered by the priest to ensure passage into purgatory, but recovery after mistaken administration condemned the patient to a penitential life, free from meat and sex (not surprisingly, the sick often delayed sending for the priest). What we expect from the end of our lives, is a window into the world of how we view our lives. Beowulf, son of Ecgtheow, Lord of the Geats, slaughterer of the Dragon Grinwald uses his dying moments to lament that he does not have a son (a lament surely as old as time):
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