The Wanderer: A struggle with Faith

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Maggie Ward

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The Wanderer: A struggle with Faith

        In the Anglo-Saxon poem, The Wanderer, the narrator describes a man who is having a religious struggle between his old pagan traditions and the new Christian Philosophy. Anglo-Saxons believed in fate, fame, and treasure; and that one could not easily change his life. The Christian Religion believed of an afterlife in Heaven or Hell, and where one would go depended on their actions during their human life. Since Christians did believe in an afterlife, they did not believe in pagan philosophy; instead they believed God was in control of everything, and things in their life happened for a reason. Following this concept, defeat and misfortune were easier to accept, because if one suffered a horrible life on Earth, he would be rewarded for his misery in the afterlife. The speaker of the poem describes a great loss, remembering the time when he was happy with his kinsmen, “Thus spoke such a ‘grasshopper’, old griefs in his mind, cold slaughters, the death of dear kinsmen….None are there now among the living to who I dare declare me thoroughly, tell my hearts thought” (6-12). The strongest relationship during the Anglo-Saxon time was through comitatus, and with the death of his lord and kinsmen, this was taken away from him. Now without his support system of his comitatus the speaker is lost, and becomes a wanderer. The horrible experience he has had of losing his lord has shaken his traditional Anglo-Saxon beliefs, and he looks toward Christianity for a different answer.

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        During the time period in which The Wanderer was written, the Anglo-Saxons were torn between the familiar pagan beliefs they have always followed; and the new hope that the Christian philosophy had brought of an afterlife. Fate and Fame were the main principles of the Anglo-Saxon philosophy, and the men of that time believed that these two values controlled their lives, “No weary mind may stand against Weird nor may a wrecked will work new hope; wherefore, most often, those eager for fame bind the dark mood fast in their breasts” (16-19). In this quote the speaker relays the belief that ...

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