Loyalty, Love, Nature and Lord
Among the few manuscripts containing Old English verse that have survived the ravages of time, The Exeter Book seems to contain the most famous Old English works known today. It is this Exeter Manuscript that contains the two compositions, namely "The Wanderer" and "The Wife's Lament" that I find of particular interest. The respective narrators of these two compositions are both in a state of exile. The way the poet of each composition explains the situation, relationships, and personality of his respective narrator is what makes the two compositions so completely different, and yet similar, all at once. In the following text, I will compare the similarities and differences between the two compositions mentioned above. The focus of this comparison will be the different ways that the relationship of a narrator and his or her lord is expressed and perceived. Both "The Wanderer" and "The Wife's Lament" are good examples of the popular Old English form of literature called the elegy. As defined loosely in The Norton Anthology of English Literature (Abrams, 1999): [A]n elegy is a formal, and usually long, poetic lament for someone who has died; [...] the term is also used to designate poems on the transience of earthly things
He who has had long to forgo the counsel of a beloved lord knows indeed how, when sorrow and sleep together bind the poor dweller-alone, it will seem to him in his mind that he is embracing and kissing his liege lord and laying his hands and his head on his knee, as it sometimes was in the old days when he took part in the gift-giving. Then he wakens again, the man with no lord, sees the yellow waves before him, the sea-birds bathe, spread their feathers, frost and snow fall, mingled with hail (101). In a similar manner, the Wanderer expresses his emotions towards his dead lord and kinsmen. He mourns the death of his lord and the forced exile from his kinsmen that he must suffer. In the following excerpt he dreams that he is back in the presence of his king and comrades, providing an example of the kind of evenings he used to enjoy. The relationship that the Wife has with her husband closely resembles the relationship that the Wanderer had with his king, in general terms. Almost every reference that the Wife makes to her husband in "The Wife's Lament" gives the husband a position of utmost respect and endearment. She calls him "my much-beloved (103)" and constantly touches on how much she longs for his return, the words "I felt longing (103)" reappearing several times in the body of the text after any mention of the husband or his state of mind. For example she says, "Here very often my lord's going away has wrenched me (103)" after describing her desolate, wild habitat. She even dreams of other loving couples who are in the company of their loved ones and wishes that she could do the same with her lord. "There are couples on earth, lovers lying together in bed, while at dawn I come out of this cave to sit under the oak tree the summerlong day alone (103)." The longing and desire for companionship she expresses through her words, and how she describes the painfully long days she must endure without her lover, gives an impression of the degree of emotion and passion she feels towards her exiled love. In this way she expresses boundless loyalty and passion of affection to her lord across the seas. These similar emotions that both the Wife and the Wanderer feel to their respective lords is rendered beautifully
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Approximate Word count = 1509
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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