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The Husband’s Message [all]

This poem is possibly another example of prosopopeia, wherein an inanimate object speaks.  In this case it may be a sticked carved with runes that is speaking a message.

The speaker in the poem says he has come to bring a message from a lord, asking a woman (though this point is sometimes disputed) to remember her vows and come and join the man, who was previously exiled due to a feud.  She is to take a ship to the south.  The man is wealthy, but he will have no need of treasures if he and the woman are re-united.

The poem ends with a runic passage that can be taken to read: I join sun with road  and earth and joy and man.

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