An Anglo-Saxon Poem That Touched My Heart

Have you ever come across something that startled you by it's unlikely connection to your life? As I was preparing this past summer for the upcoming school year, I read a poem from an entirely different time and place. It felt as if the poet who wrote it all those years ago had written it just for me.  I found it in the introduction to the first unit of English Literature.  It is an old Anglo-Saxon poem whose author is unknown.  Within its simple ten lines, a wonderful story of sacrificial love is told.

Dear to the Frisian (Jute) wife is the one

whom she welcomes,

When the vessel reaches the haven -- his ship

is at hand,

Her lord is come to his home, he who provid-

eth for her,

And she summons him in; she washes his

sea-stained garments

And giveth him raiment new. Full pleasant 

is it for him

Whose beloved wife waiteth for him ashore.

So beautiful! For a wife whose husband is often away from home, a poem that tells of a husband's homecoming and a wife's welcome is a poem with much meaning.  I just never expected to find such a poem in the Anglo-Saxon section of a high school literature book!