White Nationalist Identification With the Old English Exile: Or, Why Old English Poems Matter

Abstract

White nationalists have coopted medieval symbols and perverted the history and culture of “Anglo-Saxons.” While these references are often ahistorical, they speak to the strong connection white nationalists feel toward a fantasied idea of the European Middle Ages. The most horrific examples of this practice are when medievalisms appear on the weapons and in the manifestos of white nationalist terrorists. We cannot know definitively if Brenton Tarrant, or Anders Breivik, both white nationalist terrorists, have read specific Old English poems, but white nationalist forum, Stormfront, and white nationalist book collection, The Colchester Collection, include references to, or full-text translations of the Old English poems The Wanderer and The Seafarer. By exploring the isolated heroicism, displacement, and ironic nostalgia in these Old English poems, the reasons for white nationalists' niche interest in and identification with Anglo-Saxon peoples and Old English poetry become clear. White nationalists believe the global “white” community is threatened by mass immigration from non-European countries and that the only way to protect “whites” is to take up arms. Since not all white nationalists can reside in Europe, they use medieval references to bolster the idea of Europe as an ethnoracial home for all “white” peoples. White nationalist terrorists specifically use medievalisms to portray themselves as isolated heroes, like the Anglo-Saxon warrior in exile, avenging the loss of “white” land.