The most important bond in Anglo-Saxon society was that between a lord and his retainers. How do “The Seafarer” and “The Wife’s Lament” reveal the Anglo-Saxon idea of loyalty and the tragedy of separation from one’s lord?
The most defining characteristic of “The Seafarer” and “The Wife’s Lament” is the sense of suffering due to isolation. In both poems, the characters face conditions where they are forced to endure solitude and sparation from fellow villagers. Both characters seem to have spent their youth in their kingdoms. In the Seafarer, the poem directly adresses the Seafarer's youth living in the kingdom. On the other hand, it seems that the reader is to assume that the wife in the Wife's Lament had spent most of her life in her kingdom. The reason this is significant is because Anglo-Saxons valued socialization greatly, and the characters' situations persent in the story strongly contrast their past in the kingdoms. This longing present in both pomes reflects how the Anglo-Saxons valued loyalty to their community and to their lord. While the situations aren’t directly influenced by their connection with the character’s lords, both characters do openly talk about longing for human interaction, making both stories solemn tragedies that include the misfortune of parting from the one’s kingdom.
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