Judith

The next item on my Brit Lit 1 reading list is the poem Judith.

Background: Like many works of Anglo-Saxon origin, Judith is a translation and literary interpretation of a sacred text. The original story of Judith is found in what is now considered the Deuterocanonical or Apocryphal books of the Old Testament. Protestant Christians (since the 1600s) do not recognize the Apocrypha as part of the Bible, while Catholic and Orthodox Christians continue to recognize the texts of the Apocrypha as an authentic part of the Hebrew Bible. It is important to note that, at the time Judith was composed, the poet was interpreting a sacred, Biblical text. For those who are unfamiliar with the Apocrypha, I’ve provided links for reading the Biblical text of The Book of Judith down below. The exact date for the rendering of the text into a poem is not known, however its thought to be somewhat contemporary to Beowulf. The manuscript we have is the same 10th century manuscript in which the text of Beowulf is found.

The historical context of the story of Judith is the Babylonian conquests of the King Nebuchadnezzar II. Nebuchadnezzar ruled from 605 BCE-562 BCE. He is credited with the creation of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar’s general, Holofernes, has laid siege to the Israelite town of Bethulia, which lies in the path of Jerusalem. While the people of the town are ready to give up, a heroine arises to give hope: Judith.

Summary: Judith enters into the camp of the enemy, uses her femininity and beauty to gain entrance to Holofernes’ bed, and then kills him in the name of the Lord. She violently decapitates him with two hacks of her sword:

She seized the heathen man

securely by his hair, pulled him shamefully towards her

with her hands, and skilfully placed

the wicked and loathsome man

so that she could most easily manage the miserable one

well. Then, the woman with the braided locks struck

the enemy, that hostile one,

with the shining sword, so that she cut through half

of his neck, such that he lay unconscious,

drunk and wounded. He was not dead yet,

not entirely lifeless. The courageous woman

struck the heathen hound energetically

another time so that his head rolled

forwards on the floor. The foul body lay

behind, dead; the spirit departed elsewhere

under the deep earth and was oppressed there

and fettered in torment forever after,

wound round with serpents, bound with punishments,

cruelly imprisoned in hell-fire

after his departure. (Lines 98b-117a)

She quickly puts his head in a sack, hides his body behind the netted curtain of his bed, and heads back to Bethulia. She gives a rousing speech to incite the men of the city to arms. They go out to attack at dawn and fall on the Assyrian force with ferocity. The soldiers, fearful of waking the commander, waste precious time outside Holofernes’s tent, unable to see inside the curtain and therefore unable to see that he is already dead. When they see that he is dead, they run to flee from the attacking Israelites. After destroying the army of the Assyrians, the Israelites plunder their camp for a full month. Judith is given the battle gear of Holofernes as her reward and she wholeheartedly credits the Lord for her victory.

Thoughts: The religious imagery in this poem is fascinating. Judith is portrayed as angelic, “elfin,” even Madonna-like, in her purity and beauty. Holofernes is literally devilish, corrupted, evil. It is interesting as well, though not surprising, that the imagery of God is Christian rather than Jewish in nature. God is the “Saviour” and Judith invokes all three members of the Blessed Trinity asking for blessing and strength as she murders Holofernes.

It also interesting to note that you could read this poem as a call to arms for the residents of England to fight back against the Viking invaders. In the historical context, the British Isles were under constant threat of raids from their enterprising neighbors to the north. The victory of Judith and the oppressed Israelites over their much stronger foes would have been a not-so-subtle encouragement, I think.

There are a few notable differences between the poetic translation of Judith and the scriptural book of the same name:

• Historical Context: the scriptural book is much more descriptive of  geographical, historical, and political situations. The poem takes much of that away, simplifying the narrative to the bare-bones.
• Completeness: Judith does not even show up in the scriptural story until chapter 8. There is much more information provided in the Bible book than in the poem. In addition, the beginning of the poem has been lost. Some estimate the the first 100 lines are missing from the poem.
• Overall Effect: the feeling you get from each of the narratives is different. The poem reads more simply than the Biblical story. Which makes sense, since the complexity of the Biblical story is whittled down in the poem, mainly focused on the confrontation between Judith and Holofernes. There is much more going on in the Book of Judith. It is a story of the deliverance of the Israelites and the providence of God. It is yet another account of the absolute reliance they had upon their God. There is much more depth to the scriptural rendering of the story. You feel the story is more complete. Which is not to say that the Anglo-Saxon poem does not have its merits. It definitely does, and its a fine example of Anglo-Saxon poetry.

Links for reading:

Judith: Apocrypha: I believe this is a KJV translation?

Judith: Apocrypha link 2: NRSVA translation

Judith: Anglo-Saxon poem This translation is different from the one I read.

Judith: Anglo-Saxon poem, link 2: this is from project Gutenberg and also a different translation.

I read the poem in The Norton Anthology of English Literature, volume A 8th edition, translated by Elaine Treharne. I could not find an online version of her translation, and also no Kindle version to my knowledge. If you have links, please provide them!

[edit to original post ] It is assumed that Aelfric (the ae is combined, unfortunately my processor doesn’t allow that character), the Abbot of Eynsham, was the translator of this poem. He died ca. 1010, which is where we get our dating for the poem.

The Story of Caedmon and The Dream of the Rood

The first class I ever took in college was Honors British Literature pre-1785 at 8am MWF. My professor was a grizzled man in his 40s who was frustrated at his class of six freshman who really didn’t care about literature, much less the hard-to-read writings of the Middle Ages and Renaissance England. He told us not to use SparkNotes because “they were always wrong.” Whenever I participated in class, I used analysis from SparkNotes and the professor would usually confirm it. I am a bit ashamed to say that I did not care for this class in the least. I was a Mass Comm/Journalism major with little interest in the writings of dead people. I had always been a big reader in my childhood, but this held no interest for me. I barely completed any of my reading assignments. Looking over his syllabus six years later, I personally think this professor expected too much out of freshmen. We were much too excited to be at college to have a mature outlook on the value of British Literature or the work that should be involved in a survey course. Even now, his syllabus overwhelms me. But I’m  a little older now, and a little more attuned to the fact that our history as human beings is best preserved in our writings. Someone wrote these stories down for us. They have survived for a thousand years. And someone needs to read them and learn from them if we are never to lose our rich heritage.

To begin my journey back through my undergraduate program, I figured the best place to start is at the literal beginning of my professor’s syllabus, with The Story of Caedmon and The Dream of the Rood. Bear with me.

The Story of Caedmon

After reading through this excerpt from Bede’s An Ecclesiastical History of the English People (731 AD), I had a short conversation with my husband about why literature like this just isn’t very appealing. I came to the conclusion it is because of its focus on God and religion. How people in the Dark Ages related to God is very different from how we relate to God today. Only  religious leadership had access to the Bible, and the laypeople were told what to believe and how to behave. That is a woefully inadequate summary, so if anyone has a suggestion of a history to read or a comment to add, please let me know! And not only the religious aspects of the writings, but also the fact that it was written in Latin, transliterated from Old English, and then now printed in my book transliterated from Latin back into Old English and Modern English. Something is always lost in the process of translation.

Bede was a monk in the Northumbria district of England, and he was one of the most learned scholars of his day. The work in which this story is found is his most popular, and tells the history of the Anglo-Saxon conquests, the spread of Christendom, and the growth of the English church. The premise of the work is God’s providence and the stories contained give evidence to the glory of God.

The Story of Caedmon is about a cowherd who was given the extraordinary gift of song and verse. The song he uttered after being visited in a dream details the divine attributes of God. After he received his gift, he entered the monastery as a novice monk, and founded the school of Christian poetry. Caedmon produced many poems about God, the creation, the Exodus, Jesus Christ and his passion, resurrection, and ascension, the apostles of the early church, and the many horrors awaiting sinners in hell and the pleasures of heaven for the faithful. Bede tells us that Caedmon’s goal was to “draw men away from the love of sin and to inspire them with delight in the practice of good works.”

One thing I do want to accomplish with this blog is to get you, my reader, interested in reading the works that I myself am reading and writing about. So far, perhaps I haven’t done a very good job piquing your interest in The Story of Caedmon. So I’ll state this: it would take five minutes of your time to read. And it provides valuable insight into the uses of poetry and song for the early English church. As most people were illiterate in this time, songs were their literature, songs were their stories. And all stories are valuable.

The Dream of the Rood

This poem is simply beautiful. It’s author and composition date are unknown, however it is contained in a collection dating to the late tenth century. The writer dreams of the Rood (the Cross) on which Jesus Christ suffered and died. The Rood recounts its life, from being a tree to being the instrument in Christ’s death to its visions after Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. From a writing standpoint, the anthropomorphism is spot-on. I felt the Rood’s agony as it became an unwilling participant in the death of the Lord. As in The Story of Caedmon, the purpose of this piece is to bring the glory back to God, reflecting on his goodness and his purposes in the earth. The dreamer, who heard and recounted the Rood’s story, ends with hope in Christ and a hope in the future glory of heaven. This poem will certainly have more emotional sway for a believing Christian. For myself, I was very emotionally struck by this piece, and I’ll admit I was surprised that something this beautiful came out of the Dark Ages of western culture. Give it a read, and let me know what you think!

These two pieces comprised my first reading assignment in Brit Lit 1. And I didn’t read either one back then. If I did, I most certainly do not remember! As for discussion aspects, I can’t really think of any. The historical and biographical information on these two works is very slim. But perhaps that is better. Then we can take these works at their face value, and just enjoy the fact that they have been preserved for us to read and consider today.

Links for reading:

The Story of Caedmon

The Dream of the Rood

I read both of these works in The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 8th edition, Volume A.