“The Wanderer” is an Old English Poem that conveys an elegiac mood as it follows the meditations of an exiled warrior towards his past life, in which he had happy times with his lord and the people he cared for before they died in battle. This meditation on struggling is also present in Taylor Swift’s album entitled Folklore. Although produced at different times — “The Wanderer”’s manuscript dates from the late 10th century, while the album was released in 2020 — certain similarities can be perceived between both artworks as they address themes like solitude, nostalgia, hopelessness, and melancholy.
In his soliloquy, the lone dweller makes his grief the central figure of a melancholic speech: weary by his losses, he complains about how he has no one to utter the thoughts in his head, and this thematic of physical, mental, and emotional solitude shapes the atmosphere of the whole text. This feeling is also palpable in Folklore, as it is a product of the isolation provoked by the COVID-19 lockdown, which makes Swift’s experience of “exile” and loss — of friends, physical companionship, and of a life that she used to know — pretty similar to the one experienced by the wanderer himself. This melancholy is shared in the musical aspect of the two artworks, as “The Wanderer” would have been sung in an alliterative style in its original form and time, as it was so commonly used in Old English poetry. The use of melody would have an impact on the mournful quality of the elegy, just as it influences the listeners of Folklore.
These qualities can be perceived through most of the atmosphere of the album, but they can be especially related to the poem in the song “The Lakes”. The opening sentence “Is it romantic how all my elegies eulogize me?” (Swift, 2020) and its questioning has a fundamental importance as the reader thinks of the sorrowful lone-dweller and how his fragility shows a type of humanity that is not very commonly perceived or expected from heroic figures. The song is also surrounded by a sense of escapism and grief, as the speaker wishes to go somewhere but misses the presence of a significant person, and this difficulty and reluctance in moving on is shown in the line “What should be over burrowed under my skin in heart-stopping waves of hurt” (Swift, 2020). That situation also bothers the character of the Anglo-Saxon poem, as he cannot overcome the mourning of his kinsmen until his attention is turned to a divine figure, in whom he finds peace.
In conclusion, the two texts convey a very sentimental atmosphere, even though they are products of different times and situations, in the way they connect with each other as both personas are experiencing grief and the intrinsic suffering connected to it. It is an evidence that grief and sorrow still have a powerful impact on human beings, as they are never fully prepared to deal with the emotional effects of losing contact with their significant others in a permanent way due to death, like the wanderer experienced, or in an uncertain (and therefore anguishing) one, as the pandemic lockdown certainly influenced the persona of Swift’s composition.