The Exeter Book is one of the oldest and largest collections of Old English literature, as it was written in the tenth-century. The book includes various types of works including elegies. Some of these elegies include: The Seafarer,” “The Wanderer” and “The Wife’s Lament,” which share common beliefs and ideas taken from every day Anglo-Saxon life. These three elegies share common ideas and literary devices, but overall, Anglo-Saxon poets, through “The Seafarer,” “The Wanderer” and “The Wife’s Lament,” reveal that isolation from exile causes great hardship and loneliness. In “The Seafarer,” the poet writes about the journey of a man who voluntarily exiles himself from society to take on a life of sailing the seas. The poet shows the journeyman’s …show more content…
He wanders the frozen waves in search of a new lord, but he is unable to find one. The poet writes: “Forced to flee the darkness that fell,”(22) which provides alliteration that Anglo-Saxon poets loved to include. This line also shows that the wanderer was forced away in exile to search for a new lord to take him in. While searching for a new lord, the wanderer experiences many hardships. The poet expresses the wanderer’s loneliness through a dark and sorrowful tone. He also writes: “No one knew me now, no one offered comfort, allowed me feasting or joy.”(26-28) This shows that once the wanderer lost his lord and was exiled, he was unable to find sympathy from others. Like the seafarer, the wanderer finds some comfort during his exile from God. When everyone turns the wanderer away, he turns to faith to find some comfort in his hardship. The poet writes: “It’s good to find your grace in God, the heavenly rock where rests our every hope,”(112-113) which shows that even though the wanderer experiences great hardships from his exile, he still finds some solace through his faith in God. “The Wanderer” further continues the theme of isolation, which can also be seen later in “The Wife’s …show more content…
She decides to try and find her lord, but this results in her arriving in a strange place without knowing anybody there. The poet reveals her reasoning to move to this unknown place by saying: “Then I went forth a friendless exile to seek service in my sorrows need.” This shows that the wife went forth with the exile to a friendless land because she thought her lord would treat her well. However, when she arrived to this new place, she was sent to “live in the woods,”(27) where she would reside in a den and long for her previous land. The poet switches from a hopeful tone of coming to the unknown land, to one of despair, where the women longs to go back to her old life, one where she and her husband lived happily together. Instead, the wife her lord both endure hardship through their exile. The poet writes: “My lord endures much care of mind. He remembers too often a happier dwelling.” These lines show that not only the wife, but also the husband feel sorrow and long for their previous land. “The Wife’s Lament,” like the other elegies in the Exeter Book, carries on the idea that isolation and exile lead to great hardship and