David Eugene Clark says The Wanderer narrator idealizes his own sorrow only because he has no kin. There is a noble custom of stoicism in The Wanderer, due to the desire to become famous. This is an external inducement, unlike in Greek stoicism where the encouragement is internal.
He argues that The Wanderer falls within Aristotelian philosophy. Ethics are an aim towards an end. Circumstances limit emotional expression. Virtue is a golden mean, between excess and absence.
Jonathan Wilcox brought some great visuals with him. He had a cow horn and antlers, to discuss the ecology of Riddle poems 26 and 88.
The horn of Riddle 88 has phallic symbolism. It is, however, both masculine and feminine. The horn up is masculine. The horn down is empty and waiting to be filled with ink and have a quill dipped in it. Wilcox sees this as part of the scribe displacing the warrior and being seen as feminine.
Thomas P. Klein talked about rune names in The Rune Poem. This poem has been lost. It was burnt in the 17th century fire which took many amazing manuscripts. All we have is an antiquarian transcription, which Klein argues changed the form of the poem.
If, as Klein argues, the runes were originally drawn and not named, the works become simple riddles, as well as a rune mnemonic. I would really like to look at this poem and study it in class. I think it has great potential.