English Literature / Unit 3 ENL 0214 short lesson, about 20 seconds
The Wife's Lament
Captions available
The idea
The Wife's Lament, also from the Exeter Book, is one of two Old English elegies in a woman's voice. Exiled and separated from her lord, she sits in an "earth-hall," a cave. Scholars disagree whether her husband's family or her husband caused it, and some read her as a ghost.
In practice
A woman's exile, in a woman's voice.
Where people slip
Her circumstances are deliberately uncertain.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
Unlocks
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