Wandering

Wandering

See also Adventurousness, Bohemianism, Journey, Quest.

Ahasuerus

German name for the Wandering Jew. [Ger. Lit.: Benét, 1071]

Ancient Mariner

Coleridge’s wandering sailor. [Br. Lit.: “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” in Norton, 597–610]

Aniara

spaceship condemned to perpetual earth orbit. [Swed. Opera: Blomdahl, Aniara, Westerman, 562]

Argonauts

sailed with Jason in search of Golden Fleece. [Gk. Myth.: Howe, 36]

Bedouin

a nomadic desert Arab. [Br. Folklore: Espy, 98]

Bloom, Leopold

Jewish advertising salesman whose wanderings around Dublin are ironic parallels of Ulysses’ voyages. [Irish Lit.: James Joyce Ulysses]

Cain

punished by God to life of vagrancy. [O.T.: Genesis 4:12]

Candide

a wanderer in search of best of all possible worlds. [Fr. Lit.: Candide]

Cocytus

Hadean river where unburied were doomed to roam for 100 years. [Gk. Myth.: Benét, 210]

Eulenspiegel, Till

roams Low Countries as soldier and deliverer. [Ger. Folklore: Benét, 325–326]

Flying Dutchman

spectral ship doomed to eternal wandering. [Marine Folklore: Benét, 355]

Goedzak, Lamme

accompanies Eulenspiegel on his circumambulations. [Ger. Folklore: Benét, 325–326]

Goliards

wandering scholar-poets of 12th-century Europe. [Medieval Hist.: NCE, 1105]

Gulliver, Lemuel

visits fabulous lands. [Br. Lit.: Gulliver’s Travels]

Gynt, Peer

Norwegian farmer drifts around without purpose. [Nor. Lit.: Peer Gynt, Magill I, 722–724]

Gypsy

member of nomadic people who usually travel in small caravans. [Eur. Hist.: NCE, 1168]

Harold, Childe

seeking an end to disappointment in love, he wanders about Europe. [Br. Poetry: Byron Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage in Magill IV, 127]

Herodias

condemned to wander the world for centuries for her part in the execution of John the Baptist. [Fr. Lit.: Eugene Sue The Wandering Jew]

Ishmael

“the wanderer” aboard Ahab’s ship. [Am. Lit.: Moby Dick]

Kwai Chang Caine

Shaolin priest wanders throughout America. [TV: “Kung Fu” in Terrace I, 449]

Labre, St. Benedict

itinerant holy beggar. [Christian Hagiog.: Attwater, 64]

land of Nod

condemned to vagabondage, Cain settles here. [O.T.: Genesis 4:16]

Meaulnes, Augustine

dreamer with a lifelong fondness for wandering into romantic adventures. [Fr. Lit.: The Wanderer in Magill I, 1081]

Melmoth the Wanderer

to win souls, he is cursed to roam earth after death. [Br. Lit.: Melmoth the Wanderer]

Moses

led his people through the wilderness for forty years. [O.T.: Pentateuch]

Mother Courage

shrewd old woman who makes her living by following the armies of the Thirty Years’ War selling her wares to the soldiers. [Ger. Drama: Brecht Mother Courage and Her Children in Benét, 690]

Nolan, Philip

transferred from ship to ship; never lands. [Am. Lit.: “The Man Without a Country” in Benét, 632]

Odysseus

(Ulysses) hero of the Trojan War wanders for seven years before returning home. [Gk. Lit.: Odyssey]

Omoo

Polynesian word for an island rover. [Am. Lit.: Omoo]

Ossian

a legendary, wandering Irish bard. [Irish Lit.: Harvey, 603]

Route 66

adventure series of two young men wandering along highway Route 66. [TV: Terrace, II, 259]

Rugg, Peter

wanders on horseback for fifty years, trying to find his way home. [Am. Lit.: Austin “Peter Rugg, the Missing Man” in Hart, 48]

Siddhartha

character who wanders in search of “inner truth.” [Ger. Lit.: Hesse, Siddhartha]

Travels with Charley

accompanied by his poodle, Steinbeck drives 10,000 miles through 40 states to discover America. [Am. Lit.: Steinbeck Travels with Charley in Benét, 961]

Travels with a Donkey

R. L. Stevenson’s wanderings through the mountains of southern France, accompanied by a donkey. [Br. Lit.: Magill I, 1014]

Wandering Jew

condemned to eternal wandering for mocking Christ. [Christian Legend: NCE, 2926; Fr. Lit.: Wandering Jew]

Yorick, Mr.

in a leisurely trip through 18th-century France, he meets a variety of people and enjoys the company of the fair sex. [Br. Lit.: Sterne A Sentimental Journey in Benét, 914]