Judith is a

homily A homily (from Greek ὁμιλία, ''homilía'') is a commentary that follows a reading of scripture, giving the "public explanation of a sacred doctrine" or text. The works of Origen and John Chrysostom (known as Paschal Homily) are considered ...

written by abbot

Ælfric of Eynsham Ælfric of Eynsham (; ; ) was an English abbot and a student of Æthelwold of Winchester, and a consummate, prolific writer in Old English of hagiography, homilies, biblical commentaries, and other genres. He is also known variously as '' ...

around the year 1000. It is extant in two manuscripts, a fairly complete version being found in Corpus Christi College Cambridge MS 303, and fragments in British Library MS Cotton Otho B.x, which came from the

Cotton Library The Cotton or Cottonian library is a collection of manuscripts that came into the hands of the antiquarian and bibliophile Sir Robert Bruce Cotton MP (1571–1631). The collection of books and materials Sir Robert held was one of the three "foun ...

. The homily is written in

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

alliterative prose. It is 452 verses long. The story paraphrases the Biblical original closely. Ælfric ends the homily with a detailed exegetical interpretation of the story, which he addresses to nuns. In the first 190 lines, Ælfric introduces king

Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar II, also Nebuchadrezzar II, meaning "Nabu, watch over my heir", was the second king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, ruling from the death of his father Nabopolassar in 605 BC to his own death in 562 BC. Often titled Nebuchadnezzar ...

and Holofernes, the leader of his army, whom he charges with conquering the land of the

Jews Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

. Holofernes complies and subdues most countries to the west of

Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , ''māt Aššur'') was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization that existed as a city-state from the 21st century BC to the 14th century BC and eventually expanded into an empire from the 14th century BC t ...

, except Bethulia, a Jewish town which resists the invader. At this point Judith is introduced. As in the Bible, Judith is depicted as a wealthy, independent widow, who after the death of her husband has chosen to remain single and lead a clean and chaste life (lines 203-207). In his exegesis, Ælfric again stresses Judith's cleanness and

chastity Chastity, also known as purity, is a virtue related to temperance. Someone who is ''chaste'' refrains from sexual activity that is considered immoral or from any sexual activity, according to their state of life. In some contexts, for exampl ...

(lines 391-394). Judith is depicted as pious and steadfast in her traditions, even bringing her own food to the Assyrian's tent (lines 270-272). Ælfric thus represents Judith as a figure of identification for the

nuns A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service and contemplation, typically living under vows of Evangelical counsels, poverty, chastity, and obedience in the Enclosed religious orders, enclosure of a monastery or convent.' ...

. Ælfric also stresses Judith's

eloquence Eloquence (from French language, French ''eloquence'' from Latin ''eloquentia'') is the quality of speech or writing that is marked by fluency, elegancy, and persuasiveness. It is also defined as one of the aims of formal oratory and, in this ...

. She talks her way into the Assyrian's camp (lines 237-241), she talks Holofernes into drinking too much and falling asleep (lines 248-277) and after she has beheaded Holofernes she motivates the Bethulians to fight (lines 312-354).

Notes

References

* Assmann, Bruno (ed.), "Abt Ælfric's angelsächsische Homilie über das Buch Judith," ''Anglia'', 10 (1888), 76-104; repr. in ''Angelsächsische Homilien und Heiligenleben'', Bibliothek der angelsächsischen Prosa, 3 (Kassel, 1889; repr. with a supplementary introduction by Peter Clemoes, Darmstadt, 1964), pp. 102–16 (previously the standard edition). * Clayton, Mary, 'Ælfric's Judith: Manipulative or Manipulated?', ''Anglo-Saxon England'', 23 (1994), 215-227. * Lee, S. D. (ed.), ''Ælfric's Homilies on 'Judith', 'Esther' and 'The Maccabees' ''(1999), http://users.ox.ac.uk/~stuart/kings/ (now the standard edition) * Magennis, H., 'Contrasting Narrative Emphases in the Old English Poem ''Judith'' and Ælfric's Paraphrase of the Book of Judith', ''Neuphilologische Mitteilungen'', 96 (1995), 61-66. {{Refend Christian sermons Old English literature 11th-century Christian texts

See also

Notes

References