“The Wanderer” is an Old English poem commonly translated and studied within Old English classes.

Below you will find links along with slight blurbs informing you the best way to utilize each resource in your personal studying!

Videos:

This YouTube video provides a reading of “The Wanderer” in the original Old English. When translating sometimes it is easier to sift through the text when you can hear the original text read aloud (especially since the pronunciation can occasionally be very similar to our own modern English).

This YouTube video provides a step further in understanding the Old English text by giving an out-loud modern English translation of “The Wanderer” for people who may have gotten a word-for-word translation accomplished, but are struggling with using the Old English case-system to have a more complete translation.

This YouTube video gives a much more contextual base-line summary of what “The Wanderer” is about. It is a very concise “in a nutshell” very modern summarization. This is useful for people who are really just needing a refresher on what “The Wanderer” is about.

Websites:

For less audio-learners and more visual people, this website provides a manuscript of “The Wanderer” in both a linear non-poetic script as well as a poetic type script with all the poetic breaks included! It additionally has links to four different modern English translations for you to peruse. The bottom of the website page also includes the credentials of the website creator.

This website gives a brief background of “The Wanderer” including some insightful commentary about the way it has been commonly translated in the past and some historical context.

Books, Academic Articles, Etc:

Here are some other resources (books, articles, etc.) that you might want to look into at your local library in your studies:

Cook, Patrick.  “Woriað þa Winsalo: The Bonds of Exile in The Wanderer.”  Neophilogus 80.1

(1996): 127-137.

De Lacy, Paul.  “Thematic and Structural Affinities: The Wanderer and Ecclesiastes.”

Neophilogus 82.1 (1998): 125-137.

Galloway, Andrew.  “Dream-Theory in The Dream of The Rood and The Wanderer.”  Review of

English Studies: A Quarterly Journal of English Literature and the English Language  45.180 (1994): 475-485.

Green, Martin.  “Man, Time, and Apocolypse In The Wanderer, The Seafarer, and Beowulf.”

Journal of English and Germanic Philology.  74 (1974): 502-518.

Greenfiel, Stanley B..  “Min, Sylf, and “Dramatic Voices in The Wanderer and The Seafarer.”

Journal of English and Germanic Philology 68 (1969): 212-220.

Harbus, Antonina.  “Deceptive Dreams in The Wanderer.”  Studies in Philology 93.2 (1996):

164-179.

Hasenfratz, Robert.  “Wanderer, lines 45-57 and the Birds of Diomede.”  Journal of English and

Germanic Philology 92.3 (1993): July 309-24.

North, Richard.  “Boethius and The Mercenary in The Wanderer.”  Pagans And Christians: The Interplay Between Christian Latin and Traditional Germanic Cultures in Early Medieval Europe.  ed. T. Hofstra, la.J.R. Houwen and A.A. MacDonald.  Groningan: Egbert Forsten Groningen, 1995. 71-98.

Pasternack, Carol Braun.  The Textuality of Old English Poetry.  Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1995. 33-59.

Pope, John C.. “Dramatic Voices in The Wanderer and The Seafarer.”  Francipledius: Medieval and Linguistic Studies in Honor of Francis Peabody Magoun, Jr.. ed. Jess B. Bessinger, Jr. and Robert P. Creed.  New York: NY UP, 1965. 164-193.

Richman, Gerald.  “Speaker and Speech Boundaries in The Wanderer.”  Old English Shorter Poems: Basic Readings.  ed. Katherine O’Brien O’Keefe. New York: Garland, 1994. 303-318.

Thorpe, Benjamin.  Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, According to Several Authorities: Original Texts.  London: Periodicals Service Co., 1972.

Woolf, Rosemary. “The Wanderer, The Seafarer and the Genre of Planctus.”  Anglo-Saxon Poetry: Essays in Appreciation For John C. McGalliard.  ed. Lewis E. Nicholson and Dolores Warwick Frese. Notre Dame: U Notre Dame P, 1975. 192-207.

Crossley-Holland, Kevin.  The Anglo-Saxon World: An Anthropology.  Oxford: Oxford UP, 1998.

Greentree, Rosemary.  “The Wanderer’s Horizon: A Note on Ofer Waþema Gebind.”

Neophilogus 86.2 (2002): 307-309.

Hait, Elizabeth A.. “The Wanderer’s Lingering regret: A Study of Patterns of Imagery.”

Neophilogus 68.2 (1964): 278-291.

Rumble, Thomas C.. “From Eaerdstapa to Snottor on Mode: the Structural Principle of The

Wanderer.” Mod. Lang. Quarterly 19 (1958): 225-230.

Shippey, T.A.. “The Wanderer and The Seafarer as Wisdom Poetry.”  Companion To Old English Poetry.  ed. Henk Aertse and Rolf H. Bremmer, Jr..  Amsterdam: VU UP, 1994.  145-158.