This poem is found near the end of the Exeter Book, whose final folios have been badly damaged by fire. Despite the damage to the text, the situation it describes is clear: a husband has had to leave his country and his wife because of a feud; this poem is spoken by the rune staff he sends to his wife pledging his fidelity and asking her to join him. The poem seems to supply a happy ending to the darker narratives implied by Wulf and Eadwacer and The Wife's Lament.

Damaged places in the text are signalled with square brackets. These gaps are filled in where scholars have offered plausible reconstructions; however, a complete reconstruction of this poem is not possible.

For full editions of The Husband's Message, see R. F. Leslie, Three Old English Elegies, 2nd ed. (Exeter, 1988) and Anne L., The Old English Elegies: A Critical Edition and Genre Study (Montreal, 1992). The latter includes facsimiles of the manuscript pages, permitting the reader to visualize the damage to the text.