Old English Poetry

I agree with the statement Old English poetry lacks meaning without reference to the heroic society that produced it as, especially in the poems “The Wanderer” and “The Wife’s Lament”, as the elements at the core of Germanic heroic society are the essence of both poems as well as other Old English poems. When reading Old English poetry it is important to refer to such aspects as the duties of the Germanic comitatus, the importance of this kinship group, the origins of England and the invasion of the Germanic peoples, the emphasis on war, gnomic verses- loss of poetic and moral meaning through translation and the Germanic principal of keeping emotions unspoken.

From the first to the fifth century, England was a province of the Roman Empire and was named Britannia after it’s Celtic-speaking inhabitants, the Britons. The withdrawal of the Roman legions, in an unsuccessful attempt to protect Rome itself against the threat of Germanic conquest, left the island exposed to seaf...