Notes from Harbus: "The Wanderer" as rumination

From Harbus, Antonina. The Life of the Mind in Old English Poetry. Costerus New Series 143. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2002.

Harbus argues that "The Wanderer" is "personal rumination rather than an address to a second person" (133). She argues that "The text as a whole, interpreted in this light, invites the reader to consider the active role of the mental life in the construction of the past, present and future, a complex argument facilitated by verbal repetition and an allusive rather than explicit narrative" (133).

"The Wanderer's remark also places remembered images in a position of importance in relation to emotional stability, and introduces the relevance of Christian ideas which have offset the negative images from the past and destabilized conclusions reached purely cognitively without spiritual input" (142).

memory | Old English elegies | Old English Literature | Old English Poetry | ruminatio | rumination | The Wanderer