This poem is one of finest of the Old English "elegies," laments for the transitory nature of worldly goods. Most of the poem is in the voice of a man who, following the death of his lord, has been wandering the earth in search of another. He laments his own loss and the inevitability of loss with a poignancy that is not balanced by the brief introduction and conclusion in the voice of a Christian moralist.

The Wanderer is preserved in the Exeter Book. It has been edited separately by T. P. and A. J. Bliss, The Wanderer (New York, 1969); see also Anne L. Klinck, The Old English Elegies: A Critical Edition and Genre Study (Montreal, 1992).