The Husband’s Message [all]
Posted by mdrout on 9th November 2007
This poem is possibly another example of prosopopeia, wherein an inanimate object speaks. In this case it may be a sticked carved with runes that is speaking a message.
The speaker in the poem says he has come to bring a message from a lord, asking a woman (though this point is sometimes disputed) to remember her vows and come and join the man, who was previously exiled due to a feud. She is to take a ship to the south. The man is wealthy, but he will have no need of treasures if he and the woman are re-united.
The poem ends with a runic passage that can be taken to read: I join sun with road and earth and joy and man.
Posted in Exeter Book, Elegies, Husband's Message | No Comments »