Seafarer Project
The Seafarer is one of a group of Anglo-Saxon poems found in the Exeter Book, Codex Exoniensis, donated to the library of Exeter cathedral by Leofric, the first Bishop of Exeter (d.1072). Compiled around 970, it is the largest surviving collection of Old English literature.
The poem tells the story of life’s apparent futility through the words of a lone mariner. There have been many interpretations of the poem since the mid-19th century but Amy Riach’s strong and expressive new translation seems to empower the voice of the Seafarer. Her careful and informed attention to the original Anglo-Saxon, combined with an intense poetic sensibility, offers us an abiding ‘song,’ which speaks to us through the long tunnel of time.