RUN-ONS and COMMA SPLICES (corrections) (OWL links)

He speaks of joy and feasting, both are things he misses and is looking forward to finding again.

This leads to a few questions for the reader, why do the Anglo-Saxons suffer and what is consoling them?

The speaker suffers greatly from his loss of lord and hall he constantly seeks relief but none is to be found because his center of civilization is gone.

Instead he is forced to watch as “the mead hall crumbles, its master lies dead, bereft of pleasures” for him the cycle of lord and thane has been lost and thus he is now outside of the natural human order.

However, in Anglo-Saxon literature the hall represents much more than simply a place to feast and celebrate, the hall is also a holy place.

In Anglo-Saxon poetry the mead hall is often described in parallel to heaven, as one might attain their place in heaven through good deeds, a warrior/thane would receive a place in the hall for their loyalty and devotion to their lord.

Dream of the Rood however ends on a more uplifting note, it says that in heaven, “... there is great bliss, joy in heaven ...” (Dream 139-140).

Another elegiac Anglo-Saxon poem shares the perspective of a woman, this poem is called “The Wife’s Lament.”

This is where she is going to die, she had nothing else to live for and has no way out.

SENTENCE FRAGMENTS (corrections) (OWL links)

Beginning as a tree that was cut down, and ending as a cross that bore the Christ.

Not till we come to the end where we hear the Wanderer think about how the materials of this world are short and finite.

While in these other stories the person’s heroic deeds, this life, is all that matters.

For the protagonist is referred to as the “lone-dweller” who “longs for relief” “Following paths of exile (1-5).”