In The 13th Warrior, Antonia Banderas plays an Arabic diplomat who has fallen in with twelve Nordic warriors. They are thirteen, sworn to defend a small village, and an entire tribe of several hundred mounted, torch and spear-bearing men is charging their way. The proud Norse warriors, drenched in the falling rain, are preparing themselves for one last battle. Despite all their efforts, they have failed to strike at the heart of their enemy, and now their back are to a wall: they have no tricks left, and they will probably die.
The Nordic warriors stands stoically in the pouring rain; the makeshift defenses are as ready as they will ever me. They have sharpened their swords, tightened their belts and boots and bracers, and stripped themselves of every comfort and defense against the weather. They are ready for batter, and as they stand a watch their enemy approach, they join in the determined cadence of an ancestral battle hymn:
"Lo, I see my father.
Lo I see my mother, and my sisters, and my brothers.
Lo, do I see the line of my people, stretching back to the beginning.
They call to me; they bid me to take my place among them,
in Valhalla, where the brave may live...forever."
Their voices rise against the thunder of the approaching hoofbeats, crescendoing in the final silent pause, and the defiant shout of "FOREVER!"

This must be something like what the writer of Hebrews had in mind in reminding us of the legacy of pilgrims who have gone before us. "Seeing now that we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us throw off every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us and run with perseverance the race set before us." Let us earn the right to say with Paul and all those who went before us, "I have fought the good fight, I have run the race, I have kept the faith."