Judith

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 975

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

Judith is an example of a Medieval heroic battle epic: A speaker with clear sympathies to one side relates the story of a decisive showdown in which that side triumphs against nearly impossible odds.

Though some translations of the poem divide the narrative into seven seemingly complete sections of varying length, the poem itself is considered a fragment. The poem as it was recovered in the Nowell Codex begins in the middle of a line, with ellipsis dots indicating that a portion of the original text is missing. The original manuscript version is also divided into three sections marked X, XI, and XII, corresponding to verse numbers in the Book of Judith.

Given that in the era the poem was written, poetry focused on public recitation rather than sustained, silent reading, the lines themselves vary in length to complement a public reading of the action itself: shorter lines for action and dialogue, longer lines for moments of introspective meditation and prayer.

As with other Medieval poems, Judith does not follow any rhyme pattern or rhythmic meter. Rather, as with other Medieval poets, the poet here directs the cadence of the lines through the use of median caesuras, or pauses that come in the middle of lines. Most of the poem’s 360 lines feature a break in the middle—a comma, a semicolon, even a period. Much like a rest in a line of music, this caesura (from a Latin verb meaning “to cut”) creates a dramatic pause that allows the recitation to dwell on events and create suspense.

Alliteration

Although Medieval poetry did not use rhyme to create the music of its lines, Medieval poets, to create a sonic effect, manipulated alliteration, the repetition of initial consonant and vowel sounds within lines, to enhance the dramatic recitation of these poems. In fact, alliteration is the precursor to the modern poetic effects of rhythm, with its emphasis on counting syllable beats within each line.

This alliterative effect, preserved through the numerous translations from the Old English, creates a more subtle aural effect than rhythm or rhyme. Consider these lines that record Judith carrying Holofernes’s head in a sack as she approaches the gates of Bethulia: “She straightaway summoned certain of the heroes / From the spacious city speedily to meet her / And allow her to enter without loss of time” (Lines 152-54). In a dramatic narrative poem in which, among other things, Judith beheads a general and then leads the Israelites to a bloody victory against the Assyrian army, this moment is relatively undramatic. And yet, even in these lines, alliteration creates and compels the sonic impact. The lines manipulate the “s” sound, including the multiple soft “c” sounds. In addition to the initial “s” sounds, the lines offer multiple “s” sounds at the end of words. Moreover, the lines create a pattern with long vowels—the “a” sounds and “o” sounds—to enhance a kind of sonic cooperation.

The origins of alliterative meter, that is, why early Medieval poets used the language device, are uncertain, but the effect is immediate. Unlike rhyme, which dramatically announces itself and calls attention to the cleverness of the poet, this formal technique is quieter and allows the poem to maintain its focus on the action and its intended lessons.

Speaker

Like the Book of Judith and the Book of Jonah, another Old Testament book frequently compared to the Book of Judith, the poem Judith is a told narrative. It is a story, not history.

The speaker is never identified, and the moments in which the omniscient narrator intrudes on events are infrequent—but they are there, establishing a distance between the story itself and the reader. In Lines 8-9, for instance, the downfall of Holofernes begins when the general “call[s] his warriors to a wine-feast.” In Line 8, however, a narrator intrudes: “I am told.” The speaker concedes this is what Holofernes did, but who told the speaker this is not made clear. What is clear is that we are dealing with a storyteller who is using the elements of Judith’s story for his own purpose.

The speaker is no historian. After all, the speaker freely invents scenes where he is not present. In turn, the speaker shifts perspective without explanation from recounting the events in the Assyrian encampment to following the approaching figures of Judith and her maid. In recounting the subsequent assassination of Holofernes, the return of Judith to the city, and the eventual triumph of the Israelite army, the speaker favors Judith. He recounts Judith’s prayers to God and her prayerful meditations in the wake of Holofernes’s death.

As storyteller, then, the speaker manipulates the elements of Judith’s story to teach an important lesson to his audience rather than to record historical fact. By sharing the story through Judith’s thoughts, the speaker slants the story to ennoble Judith as God’s chosen warrior. That message, rather than recording the historical narrative of the defeat of the Assyrian occupational army, defines the function of the speaker.