The Wanderer

The Wanderer

• Preserved in Exeter book
• Date 10th century, around 975
• 115 lines alliterative verse
• Anonymous 
• Personages: The narrator of the “wise man”‘s speech, and the “wise man”, presumably the “Wanderer” himself. 
• What work begins, “He who is alone often lives to find favor.” ***The Wanderer
• Themes: A number of formal elements of the poem have been identified by critics, including the use of the “beasts of battle” motif, the ubi sunt formula, the exile theme, the ruin theme, and the journey motif, as also seen in The Seafarer.
• The “beasts of battle” motif, often found in Anglo-Saxon heroic poetry, is here modified to include not only the standard eagle, raven, and wolf, but also a “sad-faced man”. It has been suggested that this is the poem’s protagonist.
• The ubi sunt or “where is” formula is here in the form hƿær cƿom, the Old English phrase “where has gone”. The use of this emphasises the sense of loss that pervades the poem.
• In “The Wanderer”, why is the wanderer wandering – His king died.
• In “The Wanderer”, when the wanderer wakes up , what does he see? The sea.
• In “The Wanderer”, when the wander reflects on mankind, what does he realize?
• All men will one day grow old and die.
• In “The Wanderer”, according to him, what things are fleeting? Riches and Treasure
• In “The Wanderer”, how does the wanderer com to terms with his loss?
• He realizes that everything in life must die.
• You can tell that the wanderer in “The Wanderer” most keenly feels the loss of his lord when he imagines kneeling before a throne
• The first half of “The Wanderer” suggest that the Wanderer lives in an emotional state of agonized silence
• The speakers in all three poems express a deep despair and loneliness
• “The Measurer” in line 2 of “The Wanderer” In “The Wanderer”, all of the following refer to the protagonist

• The literary devices kenning, alliteration, and caesura classify “The Wanderer” as a poem from which literary period? Anglo-Saxon period