Winter as Metaphor for Bondage and Release in Old English Elegiac Poetry

Abstract

<p>In this paper I intend to analyse the season of winter as a metaphor for bondage and release in Deor, The Finn Episode, The Ruin, The Wanderer and The Seafarer. The first three poems will be examined for the psychological and symbolic usages of winter as both cause of and mirror for the protagonists feelings. A delineation of the theme in The Ruin will subsequently illustrate whether the forms of release that the protagonists have adopted to describe their reinstatement into society, are satisfactory or not. The Wanderer will be examined by a concentration on the image of winter again in terms of bondage and release by this temporal season. The major focus, however, will be on The Seafarer in order to perceive how winter is used on an allegorical level as a means towards ultimate release. Here I shall conclude that the very factors which make the winter season an effe ctive metaphor for bondage make it, paradoxically , a perfect metaphor for release.</p>