The Seafarer and The Wife’s Lament, both traditional Anglo Saxon poetry, both reveal the traditional Anglo Saxon ideals of love, glory, personal freedom, and, most importantly, loyalty. Both of these poems have (more prominently in The Wife’s Lament) traits of loyalty. In the Seafarer we see this loyalty to God towards the end of the narrative and also a loyalty to life in the sea. The seafarer tries to go back to the life on land, but he cannot do so due to his loyalty to the sea, he feels home and connected to it. The author himself acknowledges that life on land might bring happiness to many and also the harshness of the sea, but his loyalty remains with it. In The Wife’s Lament there is a more obvious loyalty; the loyalty to her lord, who we supposed to be her beloved husband. In the narrative her lord has disappeared, leaving her alone and vulnerable to the atrocious people that surround her. Her lord seems powerful many people seem to be plotting against him and she will defend him even if this takes her life. These are perfect examples of true loyalty they were reliable and always trusting what they loved. These are just some of the few Anglo-Saxon writing at their finest.
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