WANDERER | The Profound Anglo-Saxon Poem that Tolkien Used in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

J.R.R. Tolkien did something in the Lord of the Rings that no one else has been able to replicate. He made a fictional world that feels real. How was he able to do this?

What makes him stand out among writers is that he was not a writer, first and foremost. He was a scholar—one of the truly great scholars of the Middle Ages. Most of his time was spent not writing novels but as a professor of Anglo-Saxon and English language and literature at Oxford, breaking ground in those fields, and translating numerous Medieval works including Beowulf. Hemingway once wrote that, “A good writer should know as near everything as possible.” And that was true of Tolkien, at least when it came to the Middle Ages. He had a pervasive knowledge of historical facts, cultures, and of human beings, especially of the Medieval flavor. Tolkien had a higher dosage of reality than most of us, and was therefore able to incorporate a high dose of reality into his fictional novels.

There’s no better example of this than the Anglo-Saxon poem called The Wanderer, A poem Tolkien loved, studied, translated, and even quoted from during a valedictory address. Composed orally somewhere around the 5th or 6th century by an anonymous poet, It’s about a medieval warrior who, as the name implies, is forced to wander the earth because his people have been defeated in battle and Completely wiped out. His friends are slaughtered and his lord is slain. His home is destroyed. He has nowhere to return to or live. He is forced to travel, to wander the earth. He is a broken man. And this poem captures that sense of brokenness magnificently. Psychologically speaking, It’s a shockingly sophisticated poem. We can think of it in terms of the stages of medieval grief:

1. Isolation-Repression
2. Dream-Fantasy
3. Sadness-Depression
4. Acceptance-Wisdom
5. Disorientation-Confusion
6. Piety-Courage

We should study The Wanderer to gain an understanding of grief. One weakness of modern psychology (it seems to me) is that it is too limited: it studies modern people, primarily. Thus it mistakes the working of the modern mind as the working of the human mind as such. But by studying ancient texts like The Wanderer, texts that pour out such raw humanity, we see just different human beings can be from one another.

We see their VALUES.

‘The Wanderer’ provides us with an example—a historical artifact, an unarguable fact—that someone, somewhere, at some point in time, found stability and fulfillment, and possibly a great deal of happiness, in submitting himself to a lord. It is a fact that it is possible for someone to have a profound love for his lord, to submit and serve because he wants to, not because he has to. Kings are not always tyrants, submission is not always oppression, liberalism is not necessary to happiness, feudalism may be a very upsetting thing to lose.

Many writers cannot break free from the modern ethos. When they write about other worlds, they feel like the modern West. The values, the behavior, the spirit are all the same. But Tolkien was able to capture the medieval ethos and work it into his stories. That's what makes him different.

When people talk about world-building, the emphasis is often on bulk and quantity: creating more languages, more ornate magic systems, more backstory and genealogies, more character arcs. Tolkien is notorious for such things, and indeed is considered the father of modern fantasy for not only pioneering this level of world-building but also making it work. But when Tolkien added to Middle Earth, he added old things, not new things. He added things from our real world, from the sweating, suffering, crying, feeling real life of the Middle Ages. When he wrote, he wrote in styles and rhythms that correspond to the real prose and poetry of ages past. His books are a thousand years deep the moment he drafts them. When you enter Edoras, you enter not a completely new land but a very familiar one: you enter Anglo-Saxon England. And What was said of Aragorn is true: “It seems that you are come on the wings of song out of the forgotten days.” He does come out of forgotten days, and The same is true of all Tolkien’s characters. They come on the wings of song, and that song is The Wanderer.

Music
Kai Engel, Plague

Kai Engel, Periculum

Kai Engel, Thunderstorm (Pon VIII)

[viewfromthehillswift]

As a now retired professor of Old and Middle English, who in old age returns to the Wanderer, let me say "well done".

[erikkaye]

My favorite line in all of Lord of the Rings speaks to the wisdom of the medieval wanderer. They were the dying words of Theoden, King of Rohan, killed by the Witch King of Angmar after he led the charge on the siege of Minas Tirith: I go now to the halls of my forebears, in whose presence I shall no longer be ashamed.

[Agonis]

"His books were a thousand years deep the very moment he drafted them."
Chills. Truly. A statement that will occupy my thoughts this night, and when I again read Tolkien's works. Thank you for this superb video!

[Perdixx]

The more I think about Lord of the Rings the more I think it was Tolkien's way of sneaking in medieval culture back into modernity.

[teeheeteeheeish]

The Wanderers longing for a Lord is his longing for purpose-driven service.

[johnsanko]

"Grief is a twisted emotion, twisted into the shape of a question..."

Beautifully written.

[Amdgomer]

You just nailed this. I'm going through a miscarriage and the questions the Wanderer asks at the end and that Tolkien takes up and weaves into his books just hit me. I keep asking questions with this longing for some resolution, but the answer is not coming. There is no return. There is no going back and "fixing" everything. There is just the grief and the silence and the questioning. Thank you. Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for us.

[tando]

I always imagined that Tolkien found his own journey after the war in this work. Rebuilding a life is no easy thing, you are forever trying to fill a hole in you that you never can. When I read his works, I can feel that he has suffered and truly knows what the bottom of the well is. I feel that is what is missing from most authors of the genre, they just don't have the lived experience to fully grasp what in their writing is truly genuine.

[nicholasscholl]

A wise man must be patient,
He must never be too impulsive
nor too hasty of speech,
nor too weak a warrior,
nor too reckless,
nor too fearful, nor too cheerful,
nor too greedy for goods,
nor ever too eager for boasts,
before he sees clearly.

-The Wanderer

[where_is_walther]

There is no unhealthy degree in being obsessed with Tolkiens work.

I hated English lessons in school, (I´m from Germany), and I only know Tolkiens Books in German Language.

But I more and more want to learn English, so I will be able to understand Tolkien how he wrote.

I got goose bumps from watching this video, thank you.

[rongill]

I read Tolkien in my 20s and came upon The Wanderer in my 50s, but had not tied them together until now. Duncan Spaith wrote that The Wanderer had a great deal of personal authentisity. For me, every line is a page from my "many winters".

[Catholic_convert]

As an ex British infantryman i can relate to the feeling of being lost and useless when you no longer have comrades to fight for or anything to serve. It was very difficult for me to adjust to civilian life.

[trevor]

The artwork used throughout the video is:

1:08 Viktor Vasnetsov - A Knight at the Crossroads (1878)
2:13 Student/Circle of Rembrandt - The Man with the Golden Helmet (1650)
2:56 Luca Giordano - The Dream of Solomon (1693)
3:45 Rembrandt - History Painting (1626)
6:40 Rembrandt - Man in Armour (1655)
7:10 TaleWorlds - Mount and Blade Warband main screen art.
7:21 David Friedrich - The Abbey in Oakwood (1810)
8:20 Edvard Munch - Self-Portrait with Burning Cigarette (1895)
9:10 Edvard Munch - Anxiety (1894)
11:55 Anthony van Dyck - Commander in Armour, with a Red Scarf (1625-1627)
12:15 Caspar David Friedrich - Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (1818)

[royalirishranger]

My Grandfather served with Tolkien in the Trenches in the Lancaster Fusiliers, my grandfather was Irish Rifles but his Battalion was wiped out on the first day of the Somme and he was posted to Tolkien’s Battalion. That is where he was taught about life, death, war and comradeship. The Wanderer is a truly moving poem, as I too am an old Soldier I can strongly relate to its meaning.

[marichristian]

Very moving indeed. Tolkien had a prodigious mind. Anyone who's struggled through Anglo Saxon or even Middle English courses knows how unlike modern English they are. It's a revelation that Tolkien used that ancient poem "The Wanderer" as a basis for his own fiction.

[sirjared]

I was lucky to have read the Lord of the Rings at a time when I did. Its fabric of adventure, companionship, courage, sorrow, with mythologic weavings saved me in a time I was bullied and neglected.

[liammurphy]

As an old man with winter set firm around my heart, I thank you for this. Bereft, dumb and never far from tears this was a joy to hear. Thank you so much for this. L/s.

[LucidWanderer]

Where now the Horse and the Rider
Where is the Horn that was Blowing
Where now the Helm and the Hauberk
And the Bright Hair Flowing?

They have passed like Rain on the Mountain
Like a Wind in the Meadow
The Sun has gone down in the West
Behind the Hills, into Shadow.

[Residentgnome]

Thanks. This level of profundity is rather rare in Youtube videos dealing with phenomena like the Lord of the Rings which have made it into pop culture.

[craigwood]

Lancelot also speaks of his search for a worthy lord to follow and fight for. As if he is not complete, without purpose.