The Seafarer And The Wife's Lament

The concept of exile, or the act of being separated from others, is a common threat in many pieces of Anglo-Saxon literature. The reasoning for incorporating the idea of exile into so many works is to instill the culture’s greatest fear in order to create a greater impact on the reader or listener. The Anglo-Saxon people wanted to be remembered in the future. If exiled, no memory of this person would ever remain in the future because he or she was banished from the land to forever be forgotten. The reason for exile may be displayed in different ways, depending upon the lyric or story. Exile is prevalent in the lyrics “The Seafarer,” “The Wanderer,” and “The Wife’s Lament.” Each lyric displays exile in a completely different way; however, all three works instill the fear of exile in a powerful way to the reader/listener.
“The Seafarer” immediately states the main idea of self-imposed exile in the second sentence of the lyric. Lines 1-3 of “The Seafarer” states, “It tells how
the sea took me, swept me back and forth in sorrow and fear and pain.” In other words, the writer of this lyric is casting himself away. The author writes of the sea beckoning his soul to return and to seek out new adventure. A void is present in the writer’s heart when he is at home, away from the sea. No matter how dangerous the sea behaves, and no matter how unsafe the author feels, he continuously travels back to the sea to fill this void. The writer himself cannot understand the reasoning behind going back to the sea. Lines 55-57 states, “Who could understand, in ignorant ease, what we others suffer as the paths of exile stretch endlessly on?” Why cast oneself away to put one’s own life in danger? The writer believes God has the power to relieve him of his self-inflicted exile. The writer believes “a man must conquer pride, not kill it.” If a man conquers the pride God has bestowed upon him and lives humbly, then he will be rewarded with angels from Heaven to carry him through any difficulty he may come across, including exile. If fate destined one for exile, it happened for a reason.
“The Wanderer” is similar in the sense that a man is exiled, but in a different fashion from “The Seafarer.” The man in “The Wanderer” is left alone after everyone around him is killed in battle. This form of exile is not self-inflicted, nor forced upon the individual. “The Wanderer” is focused around a man who has be left to alone on the battlefield because his Lord and everyone around him died in the battle. The warrior was left to find a new Lord and kinsmen. Line 1 of “The Warrior” states, “Oft to the wanderer, weary of exile…” Further on in line 5, the author writes, “...homeless and helpless, he fled from fate.” The warrior was expected to die alongside of his men on the battlefield. This man “fled from fate” to escape death, leading him to an unexpected exile of loneliness.
The reader/listener is able to feel sorrow and compassion for this author, because he did nothing wrong to deserve this isolation. In other works of Anglo-Saxon literature, a person is exiled as a punishment, or for self purposes. In these cases, it may be difficult for the listener to feel sorry for the character being exiled because he or she deserves the expulsion. However, in “The Wanderer”, the main character is deserted because all the men around him died in battle. These circumstances make it incredibly difficult for a reader or listener to lack a sense of sorrow toward the character.
“The Wife’s Lament” is different from the other two Anglo-Saxon lyrics previously mentioned. “The Wife’s Lament” is a story of a woman whose husband left for the sea and never returned. The woman mourned over his uncertain death. The husband’s death was not confirmed, but the wife made the assumption he was deceased due to because the length of time he had been away at sea. The woman was missing a piece of her heart being without a husband. Since the woman was still technically married, seeking out a new husband was a sin and resulted in her being sentenced to exile. The woman was banished and left without any man to love.
In the case of “The Wife’s Lament,” exile was forced upon the main character as a form of punishment.
The main character committed a sin in the eyes of the people and was sentenced with banishment from the land. As a result, the woman was refrained from ever returning to her homeland to find love. The woman had to live the rest of her life with a void in her heart created by exile. The woman could not fight against the people for her right to stay because, at that day in age, men had more power over women. The exiled woman had no way of overruling the people’s decision. The reader/listener may or may not feel sorrow toward the character in “The Wife’s Lament,” because there can be different outlooks on the situation. One may feel justice was rightfully served, while others may feel as if the woman’s situation was misunderstood, and she was wrongfully accused of her crime. Whichever way the positions are perceived, the exile was forced upon the woman, and isolation was
inevitable.
Anglo-Saxon literature was complex in which every bit had to be memorized because none of the lyrics could be written down. The Anglo-Saxons had to be creative in constructing the lyrics so they could be easily memorized and recited. One way to make the lyrics memorable was to instill strong emotions into the words being used. Fear is one of the strongest emotions and the Anglo-Saxons took advantage of that. The most common fear of the Anglo-Saxon people was exile. By instilling this fear throughout the lyrics, the people would easily remember the words and were able to pass the lyrics, or stories, onto other people. Many pieces of Anglo-Saxon literature had the threat of exile expressed throughout the piece of work. This tactic was not only used to get a point across, but also to enhance memorization for the listener, or the reader.