Anglo-Saxon Themes or Ideas and Literary Techniques on "The Wanderer"
             In an old monastery British experts found a piece of literature entitled "The Wanderer." The piece was written in Latin, so the British assumed it was from the medieval period. When Virginia Jones studied it, she was convinced it was not from the medieval period, but from the Anglo-Saxon period. After evaluating "The Wanderer" my team from Oxford and I agree with Dr. Jones. We found many Anglo-Saxon ideas (or themes) and several literary techniques used in the Anglo-Saxon period as well.
             Many Anglo-Saxon themes were used. One example is the combination of Christian and pagan ideas. An example of a pagan idea from the text is "the fates of men." A Christian idea might be "Good man is he when guardith his faith." An Anglo-Saxon theme we also saw used was the mead hall for the center of life. This is expressed by the quotations, searching for another mead hall. "Dreams of hall men," The dealing of treasure... when his lord had welcome to wassail and feast." A depressing elegiac mood was also shown in this piece. An example from the text is the constant misery, woe over his lord and his companion's deaths, wretchedness of the traveling sea. A direct quote showing this example is "day by day all this earth ages and troops unto death." The words fate and wyrd show that it is an Anglo-Saxon poem. These quotations support these words, "Hapless and helpless he fled from fate," "for woe of heart withstandith not fate," "When I reflect on the sales of men," "conquering fate," "fates decrease transforms the world." A warrior swearing his loyalty to his lord is another Anglo-Saxon idea. Two quotations from the text are "Evenin slumber his sorrow as saileth and dreaming, he claspeth his dear lord again," and "Head o...