How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Line).
Quote #1
Often the lone-dweller waits for favor,
mercy of the Measurer, though he unhappy
across the seaways long time must
stir with his hands the rime-cold sea.
(1-4)
There were lots of reasons an Anglo-Saxon warrior might need to travel across the sea. But this traveler is none to happy about being on the water, letting us know that he's probably not out for a pleasure cruise. There's a good chance that he might have been forced to travel over the sea for reasons beyond his control.
Quote #2
Oft must I, alone, the hour before dawn
lament my care.
(8-9)
Old English poetry often talks about the "dawn-song," the wailing or lament in the hours just before sunrise during which characters mourn the bad things that have happened to them or their relatives, most often death in battle. By saying that he, too, laments his cares (concerns, or worries) in the hour before dawn, the speaker makes his lament part of that tradition. He also subtly signals that his cares are probably related to the deaths of loved ones.
Quote #3
Therefore glory-seekers, oft bind fast
in breast-chamber a dreary mind.
So must I my heart –
often wretched with cares, deprived of homeland,
far from kin – fasten with fetters.
(17-21)
The speaker upholds the necessity of keeping sad thoughts to oneself. He tells us that he's sad by saying that his heart is "wretched with cares" instead of just saying that he is. This reflects a separation between himself and his feelings. The idea of the thoughts or feelings as beyond the speaker's control will recur again when he talks about memory as sending one's mind away from oneself.
Quote #4
He knows who tries it how cruel is sorrow,
a bitter companion, to the one who has few
concealers of secrets, beloved friends.
(30-32)
Here, the speaker personifies sorrow as a "bitter companion." But the effect of this personification isn't to make the abstract quality seem human; instead, it's to emphasize what a difference there is between sorrow and real, human friends.
Quote #5
Joy has all perished!
So he knows, who must of his lord-friend,
of loved one, lore-sayings long time forego.
(37-39)
The notion that all joy perishes without a lord shows just how important the relationship between lord and nobleman is for an Anglo-Saxon. Not having a lord makes the whole world unbearably miserable, until there's no happiness to be found in it at all.
Quote #6
Then are the heart's wounds ever more heavy,
sore after sweet – sorrow is renewed –
when memory of kin turns through the mind.
(50-52)
Sweet memories of better times do not relieve the exile's sadness. Instead, they make it worse by reminding him again of how much he has lost. Memories and dreams condemn him to a life in which the stroke that caused the initial wound – the separation from loved ones – always returns to wound him again.
Quote #7
Good, he who keeps faith, nor too quickly his grief
from his breast makes known, except he, noble, knows how beforehand
to do cure with courage.
(113-115)
With these lines, the speaker returns to the idea that it's better not too reveal one's sorrow in speech. This time, however, there's an exception to the rule: if the grief-stricken person knows how to "do cure," to make his sadness go away, it's OK for him to speak about his grief.