[87.] Ancient fortifications and cities are often referred to in Anglo-Saxon poetry as “the old work of the giants.”
THE SEAFARER
[Edition used: Kluge, Angelsächsisches Lesebuch.
Up to line 65 this is one of the finest specimens of Anglo-Saxon poetry. It expresses as few poems in English have done the spirit of adventure, the wanderlust of springtime. The author was a remarkable painter of the sea and its conditions. From line 65 to the end the poem consists of a very tedious homily that must surely be a later addition.
The use of the first person throughout and the opposing sentiments expressed have caused several scholars to consider the first part of the poem a dialogue between a young man eager to go to sea and an old sailor. The divisions of the speeches suggested have been as follows:
| (By Hönncher) | (By Kluge) | (By Rieger) |
| 1-33a Sailor | 1-33 Sailor | 1-38a Sailor |
| 33b-38 Youth | 34-64 or 66 Youth | 33b-38 Youth |
| 39-43 Sailor | 39-47 Sailor | |
| 44-52 Youth | 48-52 Youth | |
| 53-57 Sailor | 53-57 Sailor | |
| 58-64a Youth | 58-71 Youth | |
| 71-end Sailor |
Sweet, in his Anglo-Saxon Reader, objects to these theories since there are not only no headings or divisions in the manuscript to indicate such divisions, but there are no breaks or contrasts in the poem itself.
“If we discard these theories,” he says, “the simplest view of the poem is that it is the monologue of an old sailor who first describes the hardships of the seafaring life, and then confesses its irresistible attraction, which he justifies, as it were, by drawing a parallel between the seafarer’s contempt for the luxuries of the life on land on the one hand and the aspirations of a spiritual nature on the other, of which the sea bird is to him the type. In dwelling on these ideals the poet loses sight of the seafarer and his half-heathen associations, and as inevitably rises to a contemplation of the cheering hopes of a future life afforded by Christianity.”
The dullness and obscurity of the last part of the poem, however, and the obvious similarity to the homilies of the time make it very unlikely that the whole poem was written by one author.]
I will sing of myself a song that is true,