Along the seafarer’s journey, he proves that one must endure, and strive to make the best of, the hardships that are brought upon him along his predetermined path. Isolated in the bitterness of winter, the seafarer is left to face the unforgiving cold on his own. When recalling winters past, the seafarer proclaims, “My feet were cast/ In icy bands, bound with frost,/ With frozen chains.” (8-10) Though nature’s torment, the Seafarer shows that the path to eternal salvation is one that tests the will of man. Furthermore, God does not reward those who stray from fate’s intended path. The seafarer understands that whether fate chooses to take a man’s soul by “illness, or age, or an enemy’s/Sword” (69-70) is up for fate to decide. Despite how much fate frightens the seafarer, “how often, how wearily, [he] put [himself] back on the paths of the sea” (29-30) demonstrates his understanding that only those who are strong enough to persevere will be rewarded. Lastly, in spite of all of the reasons that the seafarer could resent the sea, he is still grateful for the sea because it is all he has come to know and love. As the seafarer confesses while on land, “My soul roams with the sea, the whales’/Home, wandering to the widest corners/ Of the world, returning ravenous with desire.” (59-61) Regardless of all of the pain it causes him, the sea has essentially been the seafarer’s home on his journey to heaven; therefore, he is grateful for the sea and the adventures it blesses him with. In the end, the seafarer proves that life is an ocean of sorrow; however, one must not let their grief get the best of them in order to be rewarded at the end of their life. Throughout the poem, the seafarer is able to conquer his sorrows because of his belief that God will bless him with eternal salvation, or a place in heaven. Many times, the sea left the seafarer unsure of whether he would survive the night or not. Because of this, he firmly relies on God to guide him through the “towering sea” (35). In the concluding verses of the poem, the seafarer preaches, “Death leaps at the fools who forget their God./ He who lives humbly has angels from Heaven/ To carry him courage and strength and belief.” (106-108) Although the seafarer is fearful of fate’s unearthly powers, he illustrates that God rewards those who keep their faith with the strength to fight death. Nonetheless, the seafarer expresses a transcendental understanding that life, like everything else in the world, does not remain forever. Just like the “world’s honor” (89) or the days “when the kingdoms of earth flourished in glory” (82), life moves on to the afterlife without any worldly possessions gathered during ones life. So, when the seafarer exclaims that “the joys of God/ Are fervent with life, where life itself/ Fades quickly into the Earth” (64-66), he is merely saying to cherish God while alive because one never knows when the end will come. Finally, as a reward for lifetime of faith in God in a world full of sorrow, the seafarer hopes to find a new home in heaven. He proclaims,
Our thoughts should turn to where our home is.
Consider the ways of coming there,
Then strive for sure permission for us
To rise to that eternal joy.
That life born in the love of God
And the hope of Heaven. (117-122)
The seafarer has recognized his “home” as the sea and has strived for God’s permission into heaven by keeping faithful to both his home and God. Through his efforts, the seafarer hopes to be rewarded one day by rising to the “eternal joy” and living a peaceful afterlife in heaven.
All throughout “The Seafarer”, life is revealed to be a prearranged voyage, inevitably full of pain and sorrow; however, the seafarer proves that one can be rewarded with a place in heaven by maintaining their faith in God. For the seafarer, life at sea deprives him of companionship and any sense of permanence during his life. On the other hand, he remains grateful for what the sea has given him, a home. The seafarer uses his faith in God and the hope that one day his soul will move onwards to heaven as motivation to carry on to wherever fate intends him to go. Like the seafarer, many of the Anglo-Saxons around the time of the poems creation were seamen. Fatalism was a prominent facet in Anglo-Saxon faith and one of the most common topics in their literature because many of their lives weighed in the balance at sea everyday.