He states that “the ritual of drinking alcohol. . . is one of those heroic-age motifs which distance [Beowulf's] audience from the world of their ancestors" (26), and argues that passages in Beowulf that refer to drinking actually describe "the ritual of drinking cup of the oath. “The vow taken by drinking from the cup of the lord,” he said, “is an oath made before the gods. He then goes on to state that the expression was drunk in line 480 of Beowulf. . . should be understood as "having drunk [the lord's] beer", just as in Andreas 1003 "dreore druncne" means "having drunk blood". Translating druncne as "drunk, drunk" is logically impossible in the Andreas passage and inappropriate in Beowulf 480.(27)" (Gould) He then says: "Robinson's argument regarding 'the ritual of the oath cup' is well understood; there is every reason to believe that in Germanic society – or at least in Germanic heroic literature – formal vows were often taken while drinking, and oaths taken in such circumstances were considered binding. We find Beowulf, for example, making his beot or vow to kill Grendel. after being formally presented with a cup of mead by Wealhtheow” (Gould). The tone of the poem Beowulf is falsified by the incorrect use of the word