A Textual Examination of the Sea and Seafaring Motifs in Old English Poetry

Abstract

I intend to demonstrate a thematic continuity throughout a large section of Old English poetry, first by tracing the exile-seafaring motif in Genesis, Exodus, Andreas, Whale, the Seafarer, The Wanderer, and incidentally in Christ and Satan, Christ, Guthlac, and Juliana; I then propose to discuss the image of the sea as retributive agent; and finally, I will consider the sea as the path of the dead.