Anonymous, The Wanderer

Paul Cavill (University of Nottingham)

Ed. by Richard William Dance, University of Cambridge
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.01: English Writing and Culture: Old English, 500-1066.
Vol. editors: Richard William Dance (University of Cambridge), Hugh Magennis (Queen's University Belfast)

Dates

First circulation or publication c. 900 - c. 950

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Elegy
Poetry (any)

Resources

The Wanderer is one of a group of poems in the Exeter Book of Old English poetry generally referred to as “elegies” (Klinck 1992, 11–12, 221–51). This is largely because they treat the subject of loss and alienation through the experiences, recollections and reflections of a persona. While all such categories are subject to modification, the “elegy” classification not only usefully captures characteristic features of the poems, but also shows how in the last fifty years the predominant view of the poems has changed from embracing the possibility that different speakers might be given voice within the same poem (Huppé 1943, Pope 1965, Bolton 1969), to a consensus that a single person speaks who may develop …

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1385 words

Citation: Cavill, Paul. "The Wanderer". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 November 2009 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=24335, accessed 22 November 2024.]

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