ABSTRACT
The sea figures as a major element in several Anglo-Saxon poems across different genres, including the secular epic Beowulf, the biblically based Exodus, and the saints’ lives Andreas and Elene, as well as the elegiac Seafarer and Wanderer. In these poems, the sea has often been read as a setting for human or divine actions, reflecting human interests and concerns. Val Plumwood has pointed to the problems that arise from reading ‘nature’ (i.e. the non-human) as instrumental; such interpretations inscribe and reinforce dualistic conceptions of humans as distinct from nature (142-60). The sea of Anglo-Saxon literary and documentary texts is not simply a static stage for human actions, but a very strong presence, interacting with, influencing, and affecting the human characters. To what extent an Anglo-Saxon auditor might have imagined the sea possessing its own agency is a question worth considering.
