Anglo-Saxon Literature: Judith
【key words】:
Translation and adaptation from the Hebrew Bible to the Anglo-Saxon literature;
Book of Judith, apocrypha;
The intellectual’s responsibility;
War for justice and liberty;
The rise of women, feminism
As Cædmon is said to have drawn upon biblical material from Genesis to the Last Judgement to compose Old English poetry, AbbotÆfric ( died ca.1010 ) had made partial translations of many texts that he worked into sermon material; an Anglo-Saxon version of Pentateuch was compiled at about the same time. The prose translations of are more or less faithful to the biblical text; on the other hand, they are much freer: they take liberties with the narrative and the style of the biblical sources, reshaping narratives and placing the stories within a recognizable Germanic cultural setting.
One of AbbotÆlfric’s most striking work is Judith which refers to the Book of Judith. The Protestant Churchadded this book to the Apocrypha, but both pre- and post- Reformation Catholic read it as an authentic part of the Hebrew Bible.
The narrative recounts that prudent Judith pretends to be a fleeing doomedpeople andtells the Assyrian general Holofernes ( historically, Babylonian general ) that she will lead him to the victory over all the Israelite cities. At the feast, when the leader of people intends to violate the bright woman in the tent with the fly-net throughwhich he can see outside without beingseen, she takes a chance to cutdown and beheads the villain general in the name of God.Bringing back the head with her loyal maid,Judith is warmly welcomed by her countrymen and sheappeals to them to fight against their enemy. Then the battle breaks between the oppressed Israelites and theiniquitous Assyrians; however, the retainers are too afraid tointerrupt Holofernes’s company of the holy maiden. It turns out to be of no avail and depresses the warriors when they discover the palebody of their general. Therefore, the Assyrian’s failure is doomed and thevictory of Bethulia ( virginity )is destined.
As a whole, the poet has reshaped the biblical text for the Anglo-Saxon audience. First of all, the prose verse employstraditional language and formulas of Anglo-Saxon poetry. Appositions scatter throughout the poem.For example, the Lord becomes “the glorious Lord”, “highest Judge”, “the Lord of Creation”, “the glorious Father”, “Savior”, “the majestic Guardian”, “the Judge of Glory”, “Ruler of Hosts”, “God of Creation”, “the Ruler”, “thegloriousKing”, and “the Almighty”. It is notable that Judith holdsstrong faith in God, and she hopes to conquer the enemies and liberate her countrymen through the God’s power and providence. Epithets for Judith are “the Savior’sglorious handmaiden”, “the Creator’s maiden”, “the noble woman”, “the holy maiden”, and “the Lord’s woman”,while the wanton Holofernes is “the lord of men”, “the leader of people”, “the gold-giving friend”, “the wicked one”, “the ruler of warriors”, “the hateful tyrant”, “thenotorious one”, “the mighty one”, “themiserable one”, and “the licentious one”.Such comparison of the series ofdepiction shows that the distinct manners of Judith and of Holofernes: the former is virgin butvaliant, and prudent but resolute; although, thelatter is generous in sharing the plunders with his men, stout enough to command his retainers, andtolerant indrinking mead, yet he iswanton and licentious, and notablypagan, rather like a Germanichero. As for the retainers, they are called “thechildren of men”, “sons of men”, and “the reeking corpses”, reflectingtheir loyalty and sacrifice totheir country as well astheir commander, whiletheAssyrians, as a whole, are rebuked as “ancient grudges”, and “hateful nation”by the Israelites, “the mighty people”.
Additionally, kenning, like “spear-play” and “sword-brandishing” understates theterrible war, bringing forth an ironic effect.Or rather, the Assyrians, who used to berelentless, are now quite vulnerableunder the revenge of the enraging troop of Judith. We can also find that the poet weaves the exact verbs and adverbs in the text: for instance,
She seized the heathen man
securely by his hair, pulled him shamefully towards her
with her hands, andskillfully placed
the wickedand loathsome man
so that she couldmost easily manage the miserable one
well. (98-103)
On one hand, both the strings of Germanic verbs and of Latinate adverbs accelerate the narration and render the proseverse an atmosphere of tension. On the other hand, such vividdepiction makes the very situation come to life that hateful Holofernes is fully at the hands of prudent Judith. The Germanic element can also be traced in the beasts accompanying the war: the lean wolf, the dark raven, and the dewy-winged eagle feed on corpses, while the horn-beaked bird sings a battle-song ( see Boewulf, lines 3024-27 ).
In spite of the horrible war between two nations and the bloody decapitation of Holofernes, the prose verse cannot conceal its lurking justice and liberty from the audience. As Judith acts as an example to challenge the wrongs of the Assyrians and makes a speech to arouse her meek countrymen, AbbotÆlfric puts down this poem to encourage the Anglo-Saxons in defense of their territory against the invading vikings. We may concludeÆlfric’s thought that an intellectual or a brilliant mind should take the responsibility to play a role of the nation’s spiritual leader and should by virtue of his or her own practice urge the countrymen to arm themselves with sublime ideas, such as patriotism, and to try to take action in order to live a happier life. Such conscientious intellectuals are worldwide; for instance, Lu Xun claims an unparalleled place in Chinese Modern literature because he uses his pen of letters to penetrate the enemies’ throats and to illuminate the tame Chinese people of his age.
On the other hand, a sense of feminism rises from the narration of the poem, which proves that a woman is not worse than a man. A woman, if she insists, can enjoy reputation and honor for her courage, prudence, resolution, and leadership, like Mu Guiying and Hua Mulan in China. Another powerful woman is St. Helen, the mother of the emperor Constantine the Great: in the poem Elene she leads a Roman army to the Holy Land to discover the cross on which Christ was crucified. The figure of heroine may unveils the rising position of women in the man-dominated world at that time. According to the historical research, we know that Hebrew divided into two kingdoms——Israel and Juda.The formerpaid attention to commerce, which was conquered by Assyrian finally,while the latter concerned their laws and religion, which was at the hands of Babylonian at the end. And then, in order toreunitethe diaspora, Jewishpeopleput muchemphasis on Hebrew Bible and strengthentheir house as a socialand religious unit, and the phenomenon of concubinage dies away at the same time. Therefore,women took more participation in the households as well as national affairs.And the historicalresearch also supports a hypothesis that Book of Judith may be putdown by adescendant ofJuda who mayadapt Israel’s legend in Greek or Latin.
References:
The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 8th edition, vol. A, the Middle Ages, p100-108
