Heathen and Christian Elements in the Wanderer Essay -- Wanderer

Heathen and Christian Elements in the Wanderer The modern word weird bears precisely a superficial proportion to its etymological descendent, wyrd. What now stands for strange and queer only has an archaic connection to its classical import of Fate. During the process of evolution, however, the word went through many phases, especially during the formation of the slope language by the Anglo-Saxons. Wyrd appears fairly often in Old incline rime and prose, indicating a certain importance in Germanic society. By following the changes the word undergoes, it is also possible to follow some of the changes that the stopping point undergoes as well. A fine example of Old English poetry that employs wyrd on cardinal separate occasions - with four separate meanings - is The Wanderer. What began as a word firmly rooted in what can only be termed heathen culture eventually began to take on much more(prenominal) religious overtones. The word wyrd, though originally pag an in meaning, had prove an entirely Christian colouring by the time of its use in The Wanderer. Before beginning an analysis of a single word that appears four times in this poem, it is important to establish a few assumptions virtually the nature of the piece itself. Many an article and essay have been scripted about The Wanderer, trying to define its theme, genre, even its narrator. Yet the wonderfully perplexing nature of the poem defies any single explanation, so it remains up to the critical reader to develop his own opinion. For the purpose of this paper, it is believed that The Wanderer is, in essence, a heathen/pagan poem, rooted firmly in the Germanic culture from whence it hails. H... ...y Exile of the Wanderer. Neophilologus 73 (1989) 119-129. Dunning, T.P., and A.J.Bliss, eds. The Wanderer. London Methuen & Co, 1969 Lochrie, Karma. Wyrd and the Limits of Human correspondence a Thematic Sequence in the Exeter Book. JEPG 85 (1986) 323-331 Ti mmer, B.J. Wyrd in Anglo-Saxon Prose and Poetry. Neophilologus 26 (1941) 213-128. Timmer, B.J. Heathen and Christian Elements in Old English Poetry. Neophilologus 29 (1944) 180-185. 1Due to the lack of punctuation in The Wanderer, it is nigh impossible to know who is narrating, or to whom he/she is referring to at any given time. 2The actual meaning of sundor t rune remains ambiguous. Though apart in meditation seems the most likely, interpretations such as reading runes have been put forward.