Historical Context in The Seafarer

In the speaker's Christian world, this is as it should be. However, in a pre-Christian warrior society, the weakest could not survive. 

As with Beowulf and The Wanderer, The Seafarer exhibits the conflict between the pagan and Christian worlds during the transition from paganism to Christianity. References to fate, a clearly pagan concept, will be replaced later in the poem by references to the Christian God.