Why was it so bad to be a “wanderer” in Anglo-Saxon times?

Many of the poems in Exeter Book deal with the pain of exile. In "The Wife's Lament," the Wife is not only desconsolate because of her separation from her husband, but also because of her exile from her homeland. She is friendless in a foreign land without protection from her kin. In "The Wanderer," the titular narrator mourns the death of his lord and his inability to find a new one. He journeys throughout the lands in isolation, remembering the warmth of the hearth and the laughter in the mead-hall. For him, the pain of separation is acute. The narrator in "The Seafarer" is also an exile, although his isolation is voluntary. He recognizes the contrast between a life on land and his struggles at sea, noting the absence of friends and women. However, he also understands that God challenges all men, and that he must accept his fate. The Seafarer's view of exile is perhaps the most positive and worldly.