Where It All Goes Down
We know that the Exeter Book dates back to somewhere between 960 and 990 CE. And we know "The Wife's Lament," as a poem found within this text, must be at least that old. This chronology gives us some idea of the poem's setting. "The Wife's Lament" is a window into tenth-century Anglo-Saxon England, a time when the mead flowed like wine, and giant monsters roamed the earth. At least that's what Beowulf would have us believe.
As for the descriptions of physical setting scattered throughout the poem, we find striking similarities with a couple other contemporary poems, especially Exeter Book cohabitants "The Wanderer") and "The Seafarer." Thematically, these poems are very similar. They are all elegies, and deal with themes of sorrow and isolation. It is no coincidence then, that we see familiar settings in each. The storm-chilled stone cliffs surrounded by water (48-49) are certainly reminiscent of the nautical setting of "The Seafarer," while exile in a distant, foreign land (6-7, 46-47) certainly calls to mind the setting and wide wanderings of the aptly titled "Wanderer."