Anglo-Saxon works of literature have many different literary structures. Alliteration and the use of kennings as well as motifs are just some of the examples that they have used in their works. The Wife’s Lament and The Seafarer are two old English poems which incorporate a recurring idea and a journey which are also motifs. These two poems come from the Exeter Book, which is one of the few surviving manuscripts of Old English. The Seafarer is a classic poem narrated by an old seafarer who is recalling the events of a lifetime. This poem is commonly referred to as an elegy or a poem that mourns the death or laments of a person or the laments of something lost. There are many motifs in this poem itself: the journey of life, or the fate of living in the sea. “How the sea took me, swept me back and forth in sorrow and fear and pain…” The seafarer has attempted several times to live on land but has never been successful; he keeps going back to the sea. There is a recurring idea: sorrow. “On an ice-cold sea, whirled in sorrow”. The poem does begin with a man’s praise which eventually switches to a praise of God (lines 105-124), though he is ready to face his fate “Under his lord. Fate is stronger and God mightier…”.
Anonymous poem The Wife’s Lament is yet another poem with the content of motifs: exile, the journey of a new life without her ‘lord’, a new fate without him. The female speaker tells the audience about her sorrow. “I ever suffered grief through banishment…. A friendless exile in my sorry plight…” she has been exiled. Her lord has departed and she is all by herself with no one to protect her, much less claim her. The speaker has lost all faith of whatever possible good fate she might face in the future. Awaiting for her beloved she waits, expecting and grieving for him to come back someday. “Grief must always be For him who yearning longs for his beloved.” Both of these poems share a common journey, they both face this sort of personal or forced exile, using a similar motif.
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