Loyalty and tragedy of separation or exile from one’s lord are in Anglo-Saxon works because they believed that the bond between a lord and his retainers are the most important. In The Seafarer, there is evidence of the seafarer’s blind devotion towards God.
Even though the sea is rough and harsh, the man strongly believes in God and continues to return over and over again. He says, “We all fear god. He turns the earth, He set it swinging firmly in space, gave life to the world and light to the sky. Death leaps at the fools who forget their God…Fate is stronger and God mightier than any man’s mind…to rise to that eternal joy, that life born in the love of God and the hope of Heaven. Praise the Holy Grace of Him who honored us, eternal, unchanging creator of earth…” In these lines, it the mariner makes it obvious to us that he is with no doubt a follower of God, and he has remained loyal for his whole life. In The Wife’s Lament, the speaker is banished, and she is extremely saddened because of it. She spoke these lines to exclaim how angry and sad she is. She says, “So in this forest grove they made me dwell, under the oak-tree, in this earthy barrow. Old is this earth-cave, all I do is yearn…and joyless is the place…Under the oak-tree round this earth-cave…where I may weep my banishment and all my many hardships…” Her banishment is tragic because her husband’s family did not like her and looked for reasons to exile her. While she is banished, she also displays loyalty to her husband. She does not break her vows, and she continues to feel grief of being separated from him. Both of these works display the highly held values of the Anglo-Saxon society: loyalty and tragedy of separation or exile.
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