The Seafarer Exile
Exile in Anglo-Saxon Lyrics
There are several elements Anglo-Saxon lyrics contain, but as seen in poems such as “The Seafarer”, “The Wanderer”, and “The Wife’s Lament”, exile is one of the most prominent elements. Anglo-Saxons wrote about exile because it was something they all feared. They were terrified of the thought of being left alone, or being kicked out of their own home. Anglo-Saxons placed a tremendous amount of emphasis on a sense of belonging, which is why exile was such a threat to them. In the poems “The Seafarer”, “The Wanderer”, and “The Wife’s Lament”, the main characters have been exiled, all for different reasons and in different ways. Throughout the lyrics of “The Seafarer”, exile was presented in two distinct mannerss. …show more content…
Although the three poems included other elements such as caesuras, kennings, elegy, alliteration, and assonance, exile was still the main focus of all three poems. The beginning of “The Seafarer” concentrated on the least dreaded type of exile-self exile-as one is completely in control of it. The end of “The Seafarer” and entirety of “The Wife’s Lament” were both centered around exile from others; a type of exile Anglo-Saxons wrote about most because they feared it most. The thought of being pushed away by loved ones was more terrifying then, than it is today. The last form of exile described in these three Anglo-Saxon poems was exile due to unfortunate fate. Fate was another important concept in Anglo-Saxon society, so they made certain to intertwine it with exile. Not only did “The Seafarer”, “The Wanderer”, and “The Wife’s Lament” demonstrate the different ways in which Anglo-Saxons could be exiled, but they also gave different reasons why. Each poem told an elegiac story of a person had been ripped away from their home, or the people they cared about most, and went into detail about how this terrible event happened. Anglo-Saxon writers composed poems like these because it gave them a way to express their fear of exile, and it allowed readers to relate to the
There are several elements Anglo-Saxon lyrics contain, but as seen in poems such as “The Seafarer”, “The Wanderer”, and “The Wife’s Lament”, exile is one of the most prominent elements. Anglo-Saxons wrote about exile because it was something they all feared. They were terrified of the thought of being left alone, or being kicked out of their own home. Anglo-Saxons placed a tremendous amount of emphasis on a sense of belonging, which is why exile was such a threat to them. In the poems “The Seafarer”, “The Wanderer”, and “The Wife’s Lament”, the main characters have been exiled, all for different reasons and in different ways. Throughout the lyrics of “The Seafarer”, exile was presented in two distinct mannerss. …show more content…
Although the three poems included other elements such as caesuras, kennings, elegy, alliteration, and assonance, exile was still the main focus of all three poems. The beginning of “The Seafarer” concentrated on the least dreaded type of exile-self exile-as one is completely in control of it. The end of “The Seafarer” and entirety of “The Wife’s Lament” were both centered around exile from others; a type of exile Anglo-Saxons wrote about most because they feared it most. The thought of being pushed away by loved ones was more terrifying then, than it is today. The last form of exile described in these three Anglo-Saxon poems was exile due to unfortunate fate. Fate was another important concept in Anglo-Saxon society, so they made certain to intertwine it with exile. Not only did “The Seafarer”, “The Wanderer”, and “The Wife’s Lament” demonstrate the different ways in which Anglo-Saxons could be exiled, but they also gave different reasons why. Each poem told an elegiac story of a person had been ripped away from their home, or the people they cared about most, and went into detail about how this terrible event happened. Anglo-Saxon writers composed poems like these because it gave them a way to express their fear of exile, and it allowed readers to relate to the