Loyalty to one’s lord was one of the most important ideals in Anglo-Saxon culture. The poems “The Wife’s Lament” and “The Seafarer” reflect this, and the tragedy that one endures when exiled or separated from that lord. “The Wife’s Lament” reflects this the most directly. The poem is told by a woman who was exiled from her husband by his family. She spends the entirety of the poem talking about how she has been exiled and how it is tragic that they must be separated. “The Seafarer” is a bit less obvious for this topic, as there is no direct mention of a lord. Thus, it can be thought that the land is, in a sense, his lord. The narrator talks both about how he has been exiled and how he has spent his life on the sea, thus it can be inferred that he was exiled from the land. He talks about how miserable it is to have to live on the sea, and thus contributes to the theme of tragedy from being exiled from ones lord.
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