2.

Old English elegies and Old English society: ‘The Wanderer’

Old English elegies – manuscripts, general characteristics (themes, tone, symbolism, characters,
imagery, mood, setting)
The term elegy refers to a poem in which one expresses grief. Some of them are……(“The
Wanderer”, “The Wife’s Lament”, ”The Husband’s Message”, “The Ruin”, are occur in the Exeter
Book.) Most of the Old English poetry that has survived is contained in only four manuscripts. The
richest of these is the Exeter Book, a large anthology of secular and religious poems. The Exeter
Book includes a number of short philosophical poems, differing from one another in style and
outlook but similar in tone.
All of these poems are anonymous, untitled and all portray solitariness, exile, passage of time,
transience of earthly things, banishment and loss of a lord, of a loved one or of fallen buildings
fallen into decay and all these are at the same time themes of elegies. In the elegies we can see
ruined and abounded buildings, desolate landscapes, storms at sea, darkness, night and all these
settings are related to the themes and they portray state of mind of the main character in that
moment. The mood of the elegies is usually melancholic followed by depressive and sad tone.
Also, we can see external descriptions with simbolic purpose that create a whole image at the end.
The elegy presets the view point of individual, usually in form of monologue spoken by an
unidentified character whose situation is unclear but who seems to be cut of from human society.
The elegies talk about themes that are universally relatable, transcend time and place and they
present a state of mind rather than a specific person or event.
Old English society – general characteristics
How do elegies reflect the values of the Old English society?
However, in addition to all these characteristics, elegies are of great importance because they tell
us a lot about the society and culture of Anglo-Saxon England. They show importance of the lord
and how the Anglo-Saxon society was organized. They speak of heroic tradition and the belief in
Fame and Fate and they also talk about transition from paganism to Christianity.
What else we can see through the elegies are the roles of man and women in Old English Society
For example in “The Wife’s Lament” and in “The Wanderer” we can see examples of both genders’
emotional lament. Through woman’s lament we can see important comments about the role of
woman and we can see her self-confidence. In that period there were certain social norms
according to which a woman should be an obedient housewife, thus treating her as less valuable,
and according to which a man should be a strong figure and should not express his feelings and we
can see that in “The Wanderer”.
‘The Wanderer’ – literary analysis
The poem is about an exiled man whose family and friends were killed. He has lost his lord and, he
has no one to serve. He is lonely and, he has no purpose in his life. The poem itself is centered on a
very lonely and lamentable atmosphere. There is no living person with whom the Wanderer can
share what is in his heart. He knows that it is dignified for a man to keep his feelings to himself. He
is searching for another community to accept him. He is bearing with his memories and, he
remembers good days with his friends, drinking, talking with people, sharing treasures. The
wanderer dreams about people he used to have and, then cruel reality hits him and, he sees that
all that is gone and here we can see ubi sunt lament. He shares his wisdom, he is telling us how
wisdom man should act and, he talks about how everything is temporary and, the things we once
been focused on now are not important.
In this poem we can see interior and exterior landscapes. The first is the dream world, the
imagination, the greatest fear and the greatest happiness. The second is physical world that we
can see, smell, hear, touch, taste, etc.
This elegy has prologue and epilogue. Epilogue is the last part of the elegy where the other
speaker, the narrator, adds his little footnote of the happy man who seeks mercy and, in that part
we can see the influence of Christianity. It's good for a person to keep his promises, and to keep
his grief to himself until he knows how to make his situation better.