Understanding Lyrical and Heroic Poetry in Anglo-Saxon Literature
Lyrical Elegy
In these poems, a mood of lyrical elegy dominates.
The Wanderer
It is a poem about the laments of a solitary man who once was happy in the service of a lord, but after his lord’s death, his happiness and friendship disappear, so he becomes a wanderer. The poem ends with a moralism like you have to be good. It’s an impressive lament for the gone joys.
The Seafarer
It has the same melancholic tone as The Wanderer, the same feeling of regret. It is about an old sailor who remembers the loneliness of sea life, and at the same time, he is aware of its fascination. Like The Wanderer, it ends with a conventional religious sentiment. The date of both poems is uncertain, but it can be more or less about the 8th century.
Love Poetry
The Wife’s Lament
It’s difficult to say what he’s talking about, but apparently, the wife has been separated from her husband and she has been forced to live in a cave in the forest.
The central emotion of the poem is personal passion, love, and longing for her husband, along with the curse on the enemies who are responsible for this situation.
The Husband’s Message
The speaker is a piece of wood on which a letter has been carved. It first tells its own life story and then goes on to speak the message the husband is sending to his wife. He reminds her of his vows, explains his problems to her, and asks her to cross the sea to meet him.
Wolf and Eadwacer
We only have a fragment of 19 lines, and it is another dramatic monologue that expresses an intense romantic passion in a way that is not characteristic of Anglo-Saxon poetry.
Wolf is the woman’s lover, and Eadwacer is her hated husband.
The Ruin
It’s a description of the ruined city, maybe Bath. It’s about 50 lines and it is a picture of desolation and destruction set against a previous time of prosperity. There’s a passionate sense of regret for what has been lost.
Wisdom Poetry
It’s about riddles, maxims, and gnomic verses. It focuses on universal questions such as who are we? Where do we come from? …
Re-emergence of the Heroic
The old heroic style re-emerges in poems dealing with contemporary history.
The Battle of Brunanburh
It appears in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle dated in 937 and it celebrates the victory of an Anglo-Saxon hero against his enemies. However, there’s an important difference between the previous heroic poetry and this one because before, the emphasis was on the individual hero and his national origins were of little importance; the important thing was the Germanic origin. However, The Battle of Brunanburh shows a strong patriotic sentiment. The victory is seen as the victory of the English forces against Norse, Scots, and Welsh enemies.
The Battle of Maldon
It appears in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle dated in 991 and it deals with one of the many clashes between the English and the Danes, which ended with the conquest of the country by Canute in the year 1012. It is very similar in spirit to the older heroic poetry. It contains 9 speeches, mostly of encouragement to the English forces, pronounced by 7 different speakers, and with this poem, Anglo-Saxon poetry comes to an end.