The Wife's Lament
A woman speaks from an earth-cave under an oak tree, ordered there after her husband's kinsmen worked to part them and he took ship over the sea. She sets her own confinement against the liberty of the man who arranged it, and moves between longing for him and something a good deal colder. One of only two Old English poems voiced by a woman, and the most argued-over text in the Exeter Book.
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Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
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Closest analogues
- 51% · 9 shared
- 46% · 11 shared
- 45% · 9 shared
- 45% · 8 shared
- 45% · 8 shared
- 45% · 8 shared