Wanderer annotations

1. Oft him anhaga are gebidedh

Opens with an unidentified voice - reflexive ‘himself’

5. Wyrd bidh ful araed

• Declarative statement

• Araed = resolute

• ‘Wyrd’ has a much broader meaning than ‘fate’

• As the speaker is lamenting a personal loss here ‘wyrd’ is a personally hostile force

8. Oft ic sceolde ana

• Generally considered to be the start of the Wanderer’s speech as it’s the first place we get the ‘ic’ pronoun

• Roy Leslie argues that the Wanderers’ speech starts at l.1 - as the Wanderer frequently alternates between 1st and 3rd person narration throughout what is generally accepted as the Wanderer’s speech there is no reason why he should not choose to begin in the 3rd person

The Wanderer - ed. By Roy F. Leslie

Definition of elegy

they illustrate typical human situations to which they give immediacy by portraying them through the eyes of individuals

The Three Faculties of the Soul in ‘The Wanderer’ - James Doubleday

Spiritual progression of the Wanderer

The poem charts the progression of the soul from that beginning to a Christian resolution of acceptance – ‘the process by which the soul attains to consolation and security’

The Three Faculties of the Soul in ‘The Wanderer’ - James Doubleday

Three-part structure corresponding to the three faculties of the soul - In De Trinitate Augustine divides the soul into memoria, intelligentia, and voluntas, for the purpose of showing that the soul, remaining one but acting as three, is analogous (and therefore a reflection of) the Trinity

1. Memory

2. Intellect

3. Will

LL.8-21

Shifting pronouns

1st ‘ic’ → 3rd ‘his’ → Universal abstraction ← 3rd ‘hydra’ ← 1st ‘ic’

LL.8-21

Semantic field of the mind

modsefan (mind), ferdhlocan (life-enclosure), hreo hyge (disturbed mind), breostcofan (breast-chamber)

8. ‘sceolde’

’Had to’ PAST tense - the Wanderer’s troubles are over and done with

LL.11b-14

Contradiction - highlights that it is ignoble to express grief but then the speaker goes on to express his grief

22-23. Siththan geara iu goldwine minne hrusan heolstre biwrah

The Wanderer’s troubles began with the death of his lord - ‘goldwine minne’

22. ‘geara iu’

Emphatic adverbs emphasise the pastness of events

28. frefran

Can mean ‘console’ as well as ‘comfort’ - provides evidence for the assertion that the poems genre is consolatio (Doubleday)

LL 29b-57

• Long passage in 3rd person

• Generalises condition to the ‘type’ of person the Wanderer belongs to ‘wineleas guma’ (friendless man)

31. tham the him lyt hafadh leofra geholena.

Litotes (rhetorical understatement) - ‘for him who has few beloved confidants’

LL.34-6 Memory of happiness

’Gemon’ (34) - remembers

He recalls the habitual pleasures of his environment

LL.41b-44 thaet he his mondryhten clyppe on kisse

Dreams that he returns to past happiness

Whereas in memory (ll.34-6) he dwelt passively on past pleasures in dream he is an active participant

50. Sorg bidh geniwad

Hallucination - Since the images which rise up before him in lines 51-3 are those of his friends, it cannot be their appearance which causes him sorrow; his distress arises from the fact that they are mirages

Critical opinions about the introduction of a second speaker at l.62

62b. Swa thes middangeard

B.F. Huppe – believes that the tone of the second part of the poem is sufficiently different to justify its being given to a second speaker

LL.64-72 ‘ne to’

2 main themes addressed:

1. The disappearance of man

2. The disappearance of man’s works and environment

‘ne to’ + adjective formula (indicating a trait of human nature) is present in the works of Anglo-Saxon homilists

These admonitions, which stress moderation are as much heroic as Christian

• ne to wac wiga [nor too weak a warrior]

• ne to wanhydig [nor too careless]

• ne to forht [nor too fearful] (ll.67-8)

LL.73-87 Impersonal elegy on the decay of the works of men

Description of crumbling walls and mouldering buildings:

• winde biwaune weallas stondath, (l.76) [walls stand blasted by wind]

• Woriadh tha winsalo, (l.77a) [The wine-halls decay]

85. aelda Scyppend

Only explicit reference to the Christian God in the poem

→ laced with irony – the kenning describing His creative activity is used in a passage describing His destructive role

88. Se thonne thisne wealsteal wise gethohte

New speaker introduced (‘wise man’)

LL.92-96 ‘ubi sunt’ - the ‘wise man’s’ lament

ubi sunt → device used in classical literature and picked up in Christian homilies

The question form, ‘Hwaer cwom?’ and the references to past splendours constitute the precedents for The Wanderer

97. Stondedh nu on laste leofre dugube

The impersonal elegy of ll.79-84 is resumed by the wanderer in his own person

110. eal this eorthan gesteal ideal weorthedh

Emphasis on destruction of the works of man

111. Swa cwaedh snottor on mode

Closes the wanderer’s speech with the repetition of ‘Swa cwaedh’ (so said) structure

115b. thaer us eal seo faestnung stondedh

description of heaven in terms of ‘stability’ - ‘faestnung’

Final explicit emphasis on the emptied contrast of this world with the kingdom of heaven (type familiar in OE homiletic literature)

LL110.115 Metre

Hypermetric

LL.108-9 ‘her bidh… laene’

repetition of ‘here is… transitory’ foregrounds the mutability of earth (contrasted with the kingdom of heaven)

LL.110-5 Critical debate

• 19th century scholars - the poem as a product of pagan times, with the Christian references (most notably the final section) being interpolations by monastic reviewers, which these critics rejected as a result

• Contemporary view - far from there being any inconsistency between the secular and the religious passages, there is a deliberate juxtaposition whose purpose is to illustrate a contrast in theme between the transience of this world and the stability of the heavenly kingdom