Do you use the highest food you can get? Having high hp is important if you wanna parry/block it. You might could just run and find crypts for iron and start fighting everything that bothers you with a gud ol banded shield.. iron axe and sword also cutts these things in half pretty nicely if you learn parry timings.

Fighting mobs in the swamps once you enter them is a waste of time at the very beginning and is quite hard if you get overwhelmed... they will keep coming sooo.. really.. if you aren't feel comfortable there.. ignore everything and rush into crypts.

In crypts you can farm some entrails for nice sausages. That alone will help you immensely.