“the Seafarer” And “the Wanderer” Analysis 1n496a

The Seafarer and The Wanderer are elegies found in the Exeter Book. According to García Tortosa (1985), the critical opinion is divided as regards the number of narrators within the poems. Some believe that both elegies are dialogues between an old and a young man and some others think that they are monologues and that the narrator is only one. García Tortosa agrees with the second group of critics. He describes The Seafarer as having a narrator who ponders on the ephemeral nature of things, death and God. The author explains that in The Wanderer the narrator is referred as eardstapa (wanderer) and snottor (wise man), and this may lead us to believe that there are two different narrators but it is more plausible that these two names refer to aspects of a same journey: a phase of learning and one of maturity. Both elegies speak about exile and loneliness but with differences. On the one hand, in The Wanderer the narrator has been forced into exile: he has lost his lord and his companions and is looking for a new lord to in a comitatus. On the other hand, the seafarer has chosen his own banishment: he is a pilgrim who is on a journey to distant lands as a sacrifice to God (García Tortosa, 1985). This significant difference between the elegies leads to another contrast that is connected to nostalgia. This feeling is prevalent in The Wanderer where the narrator looks back into past memories of happier times. However, in The Seafarer, the-narrator has chosen to live in loneliness so he does not look back because he was willing to sacrifice despite the suffering of living in foreign lands and the pain of loneliness. Life in the mead hall was an important part of the Anglo-Saxon culture and we can find this theme in both poems. The hall was the place of protection from the hostile environment and where the social ties and bonds of a community were carried out. According to Donoghue (2004), The Wanderer deals with this theme more thoroughly than The Seafarer. The reason for it is that the narrator in the former poem has lost this life but the seafarer has willingly left this life aside. The feeling of nostalgia previously described can be mentioned again in connection to this theme as the wanderer laments that he will no longer receive treasure or spend time with his fellow thanes.

Another point for comparison is the poems’ attitudes towards wyrd (fate). Donoghue (2004) considers that while the seafarer sees faith as a synonym of God’s power to which-he has summited himself willingly , the wanderer presents himself as a victim of “the impersonal forces of wyrd”: “Often the solitary man […]must journey the paths of exile; settled in truth is fate.”(The Wanderer: 73) One last point that is worth mentioning is the references to heaven in the elegies which relate them to Christianity. In The Seafarer there are mentions to “the mercy of heaven” and the “joys of the Lord” which are “more inspiring […] than life on earth” (The Seafarer: 77), and The Wanderer begins with a reference to praying and to the “mercy of the Lord”.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:  Gordon, R. K. (trans.) (1957), Anglo-Saxon Poetry, London & New York: J. M. Dent.  Donoghue, D. (2004) Old English Literature. A Short Introduction, Australia: Blackwell  García Tortosa, F., “La estructura temática de las elegías anglosajonas”, Galván Reula J. F. (comp.) (1985), Estudios Literarios Ingleses. Edad Media, Madrid: Cátedra, págs. 43-68.