The Wanderer

(UNIT 1)
LITERATURA INGLESA HASTA 1660
Grado en Estudios Ingleses
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 SOCIO-HISTORIC CONTEXT
Manuscripts
• Beowulf MS
• Junius MS
Elegiac poetry
• Exeter Book
§ 8th century. • Vercelli Book
§ Ms Exeter Book, ca. 975.
§ Elegiac mood: lament.
§ Blend of Christian and
pagan elements.

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 LITERARY
CHARACTERISTICS
OF THE PERIOD
Stylistic features
Thematic features
▪ No rhyme or set number of syllables
▪ Caesura
▪ Experience: documentary, solitude, exile; religious
experience, transcience.
▪ Alliteration
▪ Biblical frame of reference.
▪ Kennings: descriptive metaphors. Icelandic sagas
▪ Fusion pagan/Christian
▪ Litotes
▪ Heroic deeds.
▪ Semantic doubling
▪ Anonymous

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 FORM
Style
§ Alliterative meter
§ Alliteration
§ Kenning
§ Caesura

Structure
§ 1st part: individual musings, lament.
§ 2nd part: expansion of ‘ubi sunt?’
(a) hope
(b) concealment
(c) nostalgic memories (hallucination)
§ Speaking voices: 1st person / 3rd person
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 THEMES / MEANING

§ Locus Comitatus
§ Seledream (“Joys of the Hall”)
§ Community/Exile/Fear of dispersal.
§ Fame/Ubi sunt?
§ Loss (of a lord, of friends, of companions, of a mead-hall)
§ Restraint & hope

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 ANALYSIS (1/10)

Q2: Reason(s) for using the 1st person and 3rd person

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 ANALYSIS (2/10)

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 ANALYSIS (3/10)

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 ANALYSIS (4/10) Q3: What theme(s) is/are present in this
part?

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 ANALYSIS (5/10) Q4: what do you think ‘fallow waves’
stand for?

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 LITERATURA INGLESA HASTA 1660

ANALYSIS (6/10)
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 ANALYSIS (7/10)
Q5: according to the speaker, what are
the characteristics of a wise man?

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 ANALYSIS (8/10)

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 ANALYSIS (9/10) i

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 ANALYSIS (9/10) ii

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 ANALYSIS (10/10)

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