Judith

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 975

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Background

Literary Context: The Book of Judith

Judith both is and is not a retelling of the Old Testament’s Book of Judith. The book itself is a matter of some controversy. Biblical scholars dispute the authenticity of the narrative of the Jewish widow who, directed by God, slays an Assyrian general and delivers the city of Bethulia. Scholars have traced several historical errors and textual inconsistencies in translations of the book. And, because the city of Bethulia itself is a fictional composite of several towns outlying Jerusalem, and the uncertain historical reality of Holofernes himself, Talmudic scholars doubt the historical reliability of the book. In fact, the Book of Judith is considered apocryphal, that is, a parable told to inspire faith rather than a historical account of events. Judith does not appear in either the Hebrew Old Testament or in the Protestant canon.

Judith itself is largely faithful to the book’s general storyline. Because the text is a fragment, some details from the Old Testament book, including the impact of the Assyrian occupation and their cruel strategy to starve the Israelites into submission, are lost. Rather, Judith focuses squarely on the heroic figure of Judith herself. The author of the poem makes one significant alteration to the Bible story. In the Old Testament story, Judith is a widow. In the poem, Judith is a virgin. By the 10th century, Christian theologians, inspired by the example of Mary, the Virgin Mother of Christ, had elevated the figure of the virgin to iconic status. In this, Judith fuses the purity, unwavering commitment, and humility of the Church’s Mary with the raw courage, blood-rage, and scrappy determination typical of Anglo-Saxon warriors.

Historical Context: The Viking Invasions of Great Britain

Although set nearly seven centuries before the birth of Christ, Judith, written most probably in the late 10th century, is very much a poem responding to its own historical context. In drawing on the familiar biblical figure of the fierce warrior Judith, the anonymous poet addresses a culture that had for more than 200 years lived with the imminent threat of invasion from northern armies of Scandinavian marauders who came by sea, known to contemporary audiences as Vikings, an Old Norse word loosely meaning “pirates.”

The Anglo-Saxon communities established along the eastern coast of Britain were largely Catholic Christian outposts, reflecting the missionary imperative of the Medieval Catholic Church. For these Christian communities, the threat of Viking raids was real. These invading warriors in their long boats were trained in combat and believed in the right to pillage, often leaving entire towns in smoldering ruin. Compelled by the difficult climate of Scandinavia, these raiding parties would often set up their own communes, determined to take advantage of the resources in the much milder Britain. By the time of the composition of Judith, more than 80,000 Scandinavians had resettled along the British coast.

Given that these marauding warriors brought with them their own culture and their own religion, they were viewed as dangerously pagan to the Christian culture of Britain. Their presence, along with the continuous threat of new waves of invading armies, demanded eternal vigilance among the Anglo-Saxon communities. In appropriating the Old Testament Judith, the poet reminds their culture of the need to trust in the power of God and the rightness of the Christian mission, but also to stand up against the invading pagans despite the odds and to act bravely to ensure the survival of their religious presence.