King Arthur was a famous Celt who faced an invasion of a different group much later. As Roman fell, the empire pulled troops from Britain, and, desiring the rich farm land with lengthy growing seasons, a group of tribal people from the region of modern-day Scandinavia took advantage and invaded. After a period of battles, the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and Frisians pushed the Celtic people to the West coast of Britain. The Anglo-Saxons thrived in England from 449 A.D. to 1066 A.D. From this group, we have inherited the English language and a heritage of poetry. "The Wanderer," "The Seafarer," and "The Wife's Lament" all tell of the harsh and lonely existence of outcasts in a society that prizes bravery and the fellowship of warriors above all. The speaker in the seafarer speaks of icy bands as metaphorical chains keeping him from his family, beholden to the sea for his living. In class, we drew a venn diagram with three circles comparing and contrasting the imagery in the poems. "The Wanderer" tells the tale of a lone survivor of a battle exiled from his village and no longer in fellowship with his brothers in arms. The fear of being alone is the #1 Anglo-Saxon fear. Worse than death, exile brought hardship difficult to imagine in the Twenty-First Century. The bond between king and soldier, (lord and liege) was the most sacred and superceded the marriage bond. These poems can be found in the Holt-McDougal 12th Grade textbook and are available online here