In a world with Facebook, text messaging, and any other social media cites we are never really alone. We may feel completely lost or alone when we lose service, but we don’t truly know what loneliness is. Norsemen were huge tough guys that loved raiding and killing. They loved the freedom of the oceans they were on. They seem like a pretty happy bunch in the movies and from any other Hollywood production, but in reality they got very home sick. These guys and sometimes women were on the sea for years. No family on the ship just a bunch of guys for a couple years raiding and killing. In the Exeter Book, there are two very prevalent themes of three poems; The Seafarer, The Wanderer, and The Wife’s Lament; sadness and suffering.
In The Seafarer,…
In this culture, men pretty much owned their wives. “My lord commanded me to move my dwelling here, I had few loved ones in this land or faithful friends.” (The Wife’s Lament lines 15-17) But even though this was their relationship, they still cared for each other. These women longed for their husbands to come home. I can’t even imagine the feeling and thoughts going across their minds. They didn’t even know if their husband was alive or dead; in good health or maimed. “I make this song about me full sadly my own wayfaring. I a woman tell what griefs I had since I grew up new or old never more than now. Ever I know the dark of my exile.” (The Wife’s Lament lines 1-5) These poor women were in “exile” while their husbands were gone. They just had to go about their daily chores and keep everything going and all the while worrying about their husbands.
Throughout The Exeter Book there are many different themes that come up, most of which are depressing and sad. Suffering and sadness are the two major themes that come about in these well written poems. Showing the husbands and men’s longing for land and beer and the women’s longing for their husbands, you can see where the priorities…