Ward 1

Jonathan D. Ward

Dr. Napolitano

English 431

27 September 2017

Fatalist Stoicism under Wyrd: How Stoic is The Wanderer?

The number of topics and debates on The Wanderer is quite astounding for how short

the poem is. One of these debates reaches into the realm of the language and culture on the

subject of what the speaker means when he uses a certain Old English word to mean happy or

not (Hill, 234-236). In his essay, Hill tries to explain his belief about why the speaker is using

that particular word and appears to conclude with two main points. First, he states that the poem

is profoundly influenced by what we may loosely call stoicism (236). Secondly, he goes

further with his analysis by narrowing down the type of stoicism he is speaking of when he

defines it by saying, In stoic thought, happiness is regarded not as an ideal or a good, but as

perturbation, an excess which the wise man avoids as he does every other kind of excess (236).

On the first point of his, I can mostly agree. However, on the second point of his argument and

description, I very heavily disagree. The poem may be more adequately expressed to retain stoic

tones and potentially stoic applications resulting from acceptant fatalism but is not based upon a

stoicism that actively, purposefully avoids emotions altogether.

On the subject of general stoicism, there is an overall stoic tone to The Wanderer. The

imagery is very bleak, and hopelessness appears to swallow the speaker and his world. From the

cold, icy land and seas (The Wanderer, ll. 4, 24, 48) and darkness (ll. 23, 59, 89) to the

persistent sorrow (ll. 18, 30, 39) and the loneliness (ll. 8, 45), the present circumstance of the

speaker is dismal and hopeless. Yet, amidst this bleak description of the world around him, the
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speaker does display some stoic tones resulting from the fatalism expressed, especially toward

the beginning and end of the poem by displaying acceptance of the way it is. He says in the

beginning that Wyrd is fully fixed (ll. 5), which shows a tone of accepting what Fate or the will

of God might be, even if it means losing everything good and being lost and lonely in a cold,

dark, harrowing world. The statement is expressed in a factual manner, requiring and displaying

no outward emotion. Later on in the poem, the speaker shows a similar type of stoic response by

simply telling the audience what a wise man should do and how he ought to live, such as

understanding what will and wont stand in the end of the world (ll. 73-80). In these regards, the

speaker appears to display a nature and tone similar to stoicism by accepting Fates (or Wyrds)

lot drawn for him. Since the speakers acceptance appears to be based on the unchanging past,

the unreliable future, and Wyrds power over both, the stoic tone may be resulting from a

sensible fatalism.

Beyond this, however, the speaker of The Wanderer is not displaying a truly stoic

approach, even in a loose (Hill, 236) way. Since stoicism is often a lack of feelings or

emotions, neither the speaker, nor the poem, itself, can be labelled as a stoic. The speaker makes

many references to deep-rooted feelings, including yearning, sorrow, and what may even be

called regret. While there is one sense in which he is acceptant that Wyrd is fully fixed (The

Wanderer, ll. 5), he also says that he sought another lord and home and friends (ll. 22-29). The

speaker is clearly showing feelings and emotions of longing and yearning, which leads him to

seek the people that will be able to fulfill the desires, which makes him less of a stoic and

appears to label him more of an emotional man. So while the ending and very beginning appear

to show a stoic acceptance of the way the speakers life and world are, the main portion of the

middle is full of emotional longing, a sort of homesickness. These emotions are not allowed by
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the Stoics practice. In this case the speaker is not revealing a true stoicism that avoids emotions.

Instead, he is accepting both, the present circumstance and the prior joys with unreserved

emotions of longing and desire that is allowed by an elegiac fatalism.

The second of Hills points (the more disagreeable one) was of the idea that the speaker,

as a wise stoic, is trying to avoid happiness and see it only as excess or a perturbation

(Hill, 236). The reason that this is such a disagreeable perspective is because he expresses the

speaker as being a stoic who is avoiding happiness as an unnecessary discourse (236). The

contrary to this reality is shown in the second stanza of The Wanderer when the speaker says

that he is seeking someone who would want to comfort [him], friendless, accustom [him] to

joy (The Wanderer, ll. 28-29). One of the speakers main concerns is to seek comfort and joy

in friendly company, which describes the opposite of a dedicated, wise stoic who is trying to

avoid happiness or anything that may potentially deliver it. He is yearning for the things that

brought him happiness and comfort in the past. He is seeking for someone to replace the lost

joys. Yet, he is still aware that his is not in control (ll. 5) and even if he attained those joys again,

he understands their temporal nature (ll. 73-87) and that of someone elses ultimate power (ll.

84-85).

Here is where there is a balance in the speaker. He is speaking in what may be described

as a stoic tone, but he is not completely emotionless, and he still cares about the past losses. He

bears grief, sorrow, and what appears to be some kind of regret. He does the emotionally difficult

task of burying his own lord, his gold-giving friend (ll. 22-23). He nostalgically recalls his

loved ones (ll. 50). There is plenty of emotion displayed by the speaker of the poem, but there is

also an acceptance of Wyrd (ll. 5) and the cold, dark land that he is now exiled to wander upon.

He persists even farther with his perspective on the world by drawing wisdom and application
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from his circumstance: that everything will be destroyed and washed away eventually (ll. 73-80).

Then, he decides to close the poem with the final proverbs about how a wise man should act,

enforcing that virtue is the only thing that will stand (ll. 111-115), not wealth or worldly,

material things, not even friends. Furthermore, he is not condemning the joys and emotions of his

past, but he is warning that a wise man should not depend upon them, since they are fleeting.

However, there is another way in which Hills description of The Wanderer as being

heavily influenced by stoicism applies (236). Once the speaker appears to have finally come to

peace with his fate, he goes into the ubi sunt and lists the elements that men of that era and

culture may have trusted in, including the speaker, himself. While the speaker is not avoiding

happiness or comfort, he is also stoically acceptant of the Wyrd and concludes in his rhetorical

questions (ll. 92-93) that all has passed in a cold, stoic-toned fatalism, which accepts

circumstances without being completely void of emotion.

Overall, The Wanderer has many stoic elements in it, and may be able to be described

as a stoic poem, but there are reservations that should be held when expressing it as such.

Emotions are obviously and clearly displayed in the speakers monologue, from homesickness to

a deep yearning for that joy and comfort of a treasure-giver (ll. 25). There is a stoic

perspective, overall, in the application of the events described by the speaker and the wisdom

that he gives as a conclusion. Also, the stoic tone that is presented may either be more accurately

named a melancholy tone or a passive type of stoicism that stems from fatalism by accepting

their lot drawn by Fate (or in this case Wyrd). This passive stoicism, which accepts Wyrds

decisions, is different from the active stoicism that Hill describes, which avoids happiness,

comfort, wealth, and material or emotional health, by coming from melancholy fatalism rather

than anti-emotional stoicism.

Bibliography

Hill, Thomas D. The Unchanged Hero: A Stoic Maxim in The Wanderer and Its Contexts.

Studies in Philology, vol. 101, no. 3, 2004, pp. 233-249. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org.lib-

proxy.radford.edu/stable/pdf/4174790.pdf?refreqid=search%3Aa390d5b7b3efb9f8eb917

95a37cd3a0e. Accessed 14 Sept. 2017.

The Wanderer. Trans. R. M. Liuzza. The Broadview Anthology of British Literature 1A. Ed.

Bernard J. Muir. Broadview Press, 2015, pp. 41-43. Print.