Date and Composition of Judith

• written in Old English
• only exists as a fragment of a larger work
• author is unknown, but the poem appears in the Beowulf manuscript, Cotton Vitellius A.XV
• an heroic poem based upon the biblical Book of Judith
  • In the Anglo-Saxon period, the Book of Judith was part of the biblical canon of the Vulgate (the Latin Bible). Now, while still part of the Catholic biblical canon, it is among the Apochrypha of the Protestant Bible.
  • Holofernes is supposedly a great warrior, yet ironically, he, the Assyrians, and their feasts become an "anti-court," one which represents social discord and is antithetical to the heroic ideals shown in Beowulf.
  • Judith becomes the true hero of the poem, though she is only a weak woman.
    • Her power comes from God, not from physical strength.
• shows the conflict between pagan and Judeo-Christian value structures
  • possibly mirroring the conflicts evident in Anglo-Saxon society between the Danes (the invading Vikings, represented by the Assyrians) and the Anglo-Saxons (the "native" people, represented by the Hebrews, Judith's people)