The Wife's Lament Over the years, there have been many interpretations of who the speaker of The Wife’s Lament could be. These range from very interesting ideas to ones that seem a little rough around the edges. It is obvious that no sure answer can be found due to the fact that whoever wrote this poem is dead and that the answer will always be in speculation even if it is correct. Hopefully, at the end of this quest I will be slightly more enlightened as to who the true speaker may really be
of “The Wife’s Lament” is a mystery. There are many interpretations of who the wife was and what she was going through. Two of the possibilities are that she was killed by her husband and haunted the earth in her afterlife and that after her husband died she went crazy. One justifiable theory is that her husband, the lord, was unhappy and killed her. It appears that he could have murdered her in a few sections. In the poem she laments that that he was sorrowful and down on his luck (“Wife’s” 1). For
The wife's Lament is written by an anonymous Anglo-Saxon scop in the Exeter book between 960 and 990 Ad. The poem is a short elegy from a woman’s perspective for the longing of her husband’s return. Alienated to exile, after her husband’s abandonment, the wife is left to reminisce on her former days of her and her husband together. The wife forever wishes for her loves return and thinks he will lament about her the same, but she truly knows he is not going to return to eliminate her suffering.
The most famous works contained in the Exeter Book include “The Wanderer,” “The Wife’s Lament,” “The Seafarer,” and “Wulf and Eadwacer.” In addition to the 31 major poems, 96 riddles are also included in the collection. The manuscript was likely copied by a single scribe in 975, though “The Wanderer” is though to date back to the Anglo-Saxon tribes’ conversion to Christianity in the sixth century. “The Wife’s Lament” may have pre-dated “The Wanderer” because “it offers none of the typical Christian
The Wife's Lament The Wife's Lament is written in first person persona from the eyes of a wife whom claims the words come from a "deep sadness". She explains to the reader that her despair began when her husband left she and their family behind. She was filled with worry for her beloved and his journey and made the decision to undertake a quest to find him, setting out as a lonely and "friendless wanderer." However, her husband's family did not want the couple to be reunited and devised
dominance”(Stelmach). Marriage was mandatory for a women in order to receive their “status and economic security” (Stelmach). A Wife’s Lament expresses the emotions a wife encounters when she loses her husband. The elegiac poem, A Wife’s Lament, displays the female role and how grieving and separation can cause one to shift to a more optimistic outlook. The speaker in A Wife’s Lament expresses her feelings about her grief she experiences from her exile. When her “lord went out away from his people” (6)
the word “exile” feared, it also helped the ruling king gain more power because of the constant fear of being banished from their loved ones. “The Seafarer,” “The Wanderer,” and “The Wife’s Lament” are three well-known Anglo-Saxon poems that incorporate the fear of exile, not only provoked by
During medieval times when “Lanval”, “The Wife’s Lament”, and “The Wife of Bath” were written, men held power and women were primarily excluded from the position of authority and making decisions. Women were primarily constrained to the well-being of the home and the role of being a wife, and thus they are rarely ever given a voice. As time progresses, the traditional roles of women and the presence of their voices begin to change. The circa of Arthurian myths began to demonstrate courtesy to women
Literature, an elegy is defined as a poem which formally mourns the death of a particular person or in which the poet meditates on other serious subjects (BABL 1635). The word choice in title of poem, The Wife’s Lament, immediately sets a somber tone of an Old English elegy. The words “wife’s” and “lament” creates an image of a woman weeping about a serious subject matter. In the opening lines of the poem, the narrative voice states, “I make this song of myself, deeply sorrowing, /my own life’s journey”
such as: fear, anxiety and loneliness. Exile could also bring to light new values and unfamiliar lifestyles in which develop significant life lessons. The main characters of the three Anglo-Saxon poems, “The Seafarer,” “The Wanderer,” and “The Wife’s Lament,” experienced some type of exile that shaped their perspectives on life. In the Anglo-Saxon poem “The Seafarer,” an Anglo-Saxon man is taken away from his home by the forceful, sweeping sea. The man’s home was the mead-hall, where he and
wanderer” and “The Wife’s lament”, the characters all share the theme of exile in some type of way. Anglo-Saxon elegies deals with male sociability and the connection between man and his creator, God. Despite the fact that there are many sad poems, “The seafarer” and “The wanderer” are the two that stand out the most. In these two poems both men deal with the loss of social society, and the sense of being close to their God but losing them in some type of way. In the “The Wife’s Lament”, the women also
In the poem “Wife’s Lament”, the wife goes through a series of emotions that has occurred due to her isolation between her and her husband and also being unaware of why she is put in the position of being alone. She begins to reminisce on events from her past and often adds input on how it correlates to what she is feeling now. Although this poem is filled with sorrow, yearn and isolation, I believe this is a poem about repentance towards her husband. During this time period, women were only submissive
in their writings. Exile to the Anglo-Saxons meant loneliness, difficulty surviving, and starting a new beginning. To express their fear, they sang many lyircs about it. Some examples of this writing is “The Seafarer”, “The Wanderer”, and “The Wife’s Lament”. Each of these lyrics displays an example of exile within the Anglo-Saxon community. These lyrics each introduce a different aspect of exile to very different people. Exile can be shown in many different ways and can each have different effects
Medieval Poems Once you have read the poems The Wanderer, The Wife's Lament and The Seafarer it is rather clear how harsh the life of people in the medieval society was. Many people of the medieval society, man or woman, were faced with gruesomely difficult times and hardships. Life back then wasn't as easily enjoyed as it can be now. People of all descriptions had their own obstacles in the way of an easy life, or their happiness. Medieval times were far from ideal. In each one of these poems it
The challenging emotions surrounding a “sorrowful mind”, (l.40 47) invoke an internal struggle for the wife in the poem, The Wife’s Lament. The wife endures struggles after her husband betrays and abandons her. The process of expressing this poem provides her with a meaningful and healthy outlet for her to share her strong emotions, allowing her to try and heal from her sorrowful mind. The wife begins her struggles with experiencing a sorrowful mind filled with anger that cause her the desire of
The Absence of Women in Beowulf, The Wife's Lament, and the Battle of Maldon It could be argued that women are indeed present in the minority in surviving Anglo-Saxon poetry, and that therefore, they are made conspicuous through their absence. The fact they may appear less frequently in Old English Literature does not necessarily mean that women were any less significant in society at this time, although this is the conclusion reached by some. It is assumed that women did, in general, have less
The Anglo-Saxon poems, “The Wanderer,” “The Seafarer,” and “The Wife’s Lament” The Old English, or Anglo-Saxon, era of England lasted from about 450-1066 A.D. The tribes from Germany that conquered Britain in the fifth century carried with them both the Old English language and a detailed poetic tradition. The tradition included alliteration, stressed and unstressed syllables, but more importantly, the poetry was usually mournful, reflecting on suffering and loss.1These sorrowful poems from
The Seafarer, The Wanderer, and The Wife’s Lament all contains faith verses fate. The three poems are very similar and very different. The three poems ranging from a lonely man, to a lost soldier, to a wife’s bedrail. The medieval poems show hurt, confusion, and loneliness. The Seafarer, The Wanderer, and The Wife’s Lament all contain keening in the personalized poems, in many lines. The Wanderer is a poem based on a soldier who went into exile because of the death of his dear lord. In line twenty
The Journeys in Old English Poetry In the poems “The Wanderer”, “The Wife’s Lament”, and “Cuchilainn's Boyhood Deeds” there are journeys that each of the characters go through in the poems. In The Wanderer and “The Wife's Lament” the characters are dealing with the lose of a what they called life. In “Cuchilainn's Boyhood Deeds” the young man in the poem is seeking glory and honor. The poem dapple in both a physical journey and a mental or emotional dilemma. In “The Wanderer” the warrior is sent
her new home a “joyless dwelling” (ln. 32). In her sad and lonely state of mind, the wife admits that she hopes her husband is as sad-minded as she is. She hopes he misses her and is as equally sorrowful. The narrator’s exile described in “The Wife’s Lament” is far more bitter than what the men from the other two poems endured. While the men both learned new things about themselves and about the meaning of life, the wife was left confused and