The Anglo-Saxon poems, The Wanderer, The Seafarer, and The Wife’s Lament

In “The Wanderer” there is a theme of the inevitably of death and deaths appearance all around us. The wanderer’s grievance of the death he has faced is seen through the authors' use of ubi sunt:

The Seafarer, The Wanderer, and The Wife’s Lament all contains faith verses fate. The three poems are very similar and very different. The three poems ranging from a lonely man, to a lost soldier, to a wife’s bedrail. The medieval poems show hurt, confusion, and loneliness.

In The Seafarer one difference is this is a self imposed exile. He was not forced to leave, he chose to leave. The speaker of The Seafarer says his journey is true and he remembers every little detail that happened to him while traveling the ocean in the middle of a cold winter. He experiences loneliness, and hatred for city people. He remembers his struggle through the long cold days. He believes he was called out and that is why he leaves his country. “Called me eagerly, sent me over the horizon.”

Both the ‘Odyssey’ and ‘1001 Nights’ feature male protagonists who traverse the seas, and the concepts and themes of men seafaring is common throughout most canonical texts. For example, the allusion of Odysseus’ difficult journey is made when a minor male character in Apuleius’ ‘The Golden Ass’ describes his seafaring adventures as being ‘positively Ulyssian’ (‘Ulyssian’ thus being a reference the Roman naming of Odysseus) (pg 29). Furthermore, both texts share themes, such as: seafaring, the supernatural, trials and tribulations, tradition, belief systems, and the geographical setting and pride in the protagonist’s home city play a key role to the overarching plots of the texts in the sense of the protagonist’s endurance and motivation to both leave and return home. Likewise, the supernatural is used to further the plot of both texts.

The Mariner’s lifelong penance is to relay his story and message throughout the lands to the various individuals he holds a calling towards. The Mariner can only relieve his frequents bouts of extreme agony and guilt from his past by narrating his story and lesson to others, bidding them not to make the same mistake he did. Initially, the listener is reluctant to hear the Mariner’s tale, eager to get to the wedding that is about to begin. However, the listener is somehow drawn to the Mariner and yields to his tale. He becomes enchanted, and by the tale’s end, the listener is left, shocked, speechless, and in awe. He gains a new perspective of the world, and the poem ends with the words, “He [the listener] went like one that hath been stunned / And is of sense forlorn; / A sadder and a wiser man, / He rose the morrow morn.”

Anglo-Saxon literature was based on Germanic myths about battles, heroes, diseases, dragons and religion. Writers did not pay much attention to female issues, and there are only few poems that talk about them. Beowulf and “"The Wife’s Lament"” are two examples that briefly consider women’s lives in that time. Anglo-Saxon history and poetry portray women’s lives as uneasy and dependent on their husbands’ positions. Women had to endure arranged marriages, abuse and male dominance.

During the Anglo-Saxon time period, individuals wrote poems about achievements, deaths, emotions, and adventures taken by certain individuals. There were many popular poems during this era including, “Beowulf” translated by Burton Raffer and “The Wanderer” translated by Charles W. Kennedy. Although both these poems were written during this era, “Beowulf” was an epic poem and “The Wanderer” was an elegiac poem. However, both of these pieces shared certain characteristics related to the culture and values of the Anglo-Saxon culture. Many attributes that make up this culture are related to both Pagan and Christian beliefs. This includes many ideals relating to fate and God. The culture and values of Anglo-Saxons through “Beowulf” and “The Wanderer”, suggest that along one’s quest emerges an individuals outlook on ways of life.

First of all, in “The Seafarer” the writer discusses the internal conflicts he is having among the waves of the sea. Even though this self-chosen exile causes this man pain and sorrow, peace is not a common entity for him while on land. “The time for journeys would come and my soul/ called me eagerly out, sent me over/ the horizon, seeking foreigners’ homes.” (lines 36-38). The gallant mortal does not doubt that there is no fear among his heart, but his longing for the tides is far too strong to be confined to the dry, lifeless land. His experiences only bring him back to where he feels at home the most - the sea. “But there isn’t a man on earth so proud,/…/he feels no fear as the sails unfurl/…/only the ocean’s heave; But longing wraps itself around him.” (lines 39-47). The way he shows his fearful arrogance is an example again of his internal conflict.

It’s easy to tell that the ocean is a mysterious and isolating place from all of the tragic tales we hear from sailors both real and fictional. Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and an anonymous author’s “The Seafarer” are quite similar in that they both revolve around said tragic tales told by sailors. However, there seem to be more commonalities between their themes, tones, and messages rather than their seaward-bound settings. But before we can discuss these similar settings and deeper themes, we have to tackle their origins.

In the medieval period, the Old English elegies use unnamed speakers that offer similar descriptions of devastated landscapes and immense personal hardships. However, where the unknown authors’ of the Old English elegies often present smilier descriptions and themes across their respective works, they do not present similar opinions on larger concerns like religion and the role of community. This is a concept that is interwoven into the framework of the Old English elegies “The Wanderer” and “The Seafarer”. By comparing and contrasting these two works, this paper will argue that the unnamed narrators’ vivid descriptions of landscapes, circumstances surrounding their exile, and climactic perspectives on the earthly community function solely

The speaker of “The Seafarer” believes that soon the warrior way of life will no longer be

Old English literature encompasses writings in Anglo-Saxon England during its conversion to Christianity in the 7th century up until the Norman Conquest in 1066. The roots of Anglo-Saxon poetry were based on Germanic tradition that was mainly in the form of alliterative verse (Greenblatt). When comparing to other forms of poetry, there are 6 key characteristics that define alliterative verse: four-beat lines, medial caesuras, enjambments, half-line alliteration, kennings and litotes. In addition to Beowulf and “Caedmon’s Hymn”, examples will also be taken from my alliterative verse translation of the nursery rhyme “Little Jack Horner”.

It’s true that ancient Egypt had started the first communication system with their hieroglyphs symbols, and then the Greeks added consonants and vowels in their alphabets; but at a time when the rest of Western Europe was still writing in Latin, the Anglo-Saxons developed a confident tradition of vernacular writing in English. The love of literature in Anglo-Saxons started with poetry, so it is doubtless to say that they brought with them the beginnings of poetry as it stands at the foundation of English literature. The Anglo-Saxons appreciation of literature came as a result of their religion. Because it didn’t offer them any form of life after death, they turned to poetry, as it’s their only hope for immortality. Poets, who held an honored place in society, wrote about the heroic deeds of the warriors to preserve them in the memory of people. At first, the poetry started with a group of people expressing their emotions together, communally in a rhythmical fashion, mostly after an achievement, showing their

The Seafarer’s mood starts with depression and sorrow telling of hardships he endured in the sea. He describes his travels, “How the sea took me, swept me back and forth in sorrow and fear and pain.” (The Seafarer 21). It showed his suffering, tested his endurance, and gave him a will to live. He gets an feeling from the sea that no one could understand living on land, “At my sea-weary soul. No man sheltered On the quit fairness of earth can feel How wretched I was, drifting through winter On an ice-cold sea, whirled in sorrow, Alone in a world blown clear of love, Hung with icicles.” (The Seafarer 22). The pain of being alone and in constant worry is hard to live with, but he can’t help the need he has for the sea, “I put myself back on the paths of the sea. Night would blacken; it would snow from the north: Frost bound the earth and hail would fall. The coldest seeds, And how my heart would begin to beat, knowing once more The sault waves tossing and the towering sea! The time for journeys would come

The poem Wulf and Eadwacer displays a number of typical characteristics associated with the genre of the Old English Elegies. In this essay I aim to identify such defining characteristics and discuss why, from Paul Muldoon's translation, Wulf and Eadwacer is in every sense an Old English Elegy. I will examine the environment in which the poem is set, the theme of social isolation, the 'lif is laene' motif, the 'ubi sunt' lamentation and the medieval concept of 'wyrd'. I will highlight and support with examples how each of these features are present themselves and their significance in the classification of this poem as an Old English Elegy.