We humans are innately social creatures, and even the introverts among us long to feel included in a community we consider our own. Feelings of isolation cause grief and sadness, both now and in ages across time. The Old English poem known as “The Wanderer” evokes these emotions, telling the story of a man far from his home, missing his old life with his companions who have died. “The Wanderer” was written before 975, and is a first-person account of a warrior adrift, poignantly expressing a sense of loss and loneliness as he reflects on the good times he used to have with his companions. “I, often wretched and sorrowful, bereft of my homeland . . . Have had to bind in fetters my inmost thoughts, since long years ago I hid my Lord in the darkness of the earth, and I, wretched, from there travelled most sorrowfully over the frozen wave, sought, sad at the lack of a hall . . . . One in the mead-hall who knew my people, or wished to console the friendless one – me – entertain me with delights. He who has tried it knows how cruel is sorrow as a companion to the one who has few beloved friends” . . . .
This poem’s reflection of how much we humans crave each other’s company is something that connects us even when we are separated in other ways.
Source(s): “Anglo-Saxons.net,” “The Wanderer,” lines 18-31. Image DOI: saesferd.wordpress.com/2015/01/14/anglo-saxon sculpture. Museum of Somerset, circa 1000 CE.
