Judith

Undergraduates frequently find the fine Old English poem Judith the most stimulating of the surviving texts from the Anglo-Saxon period. In the past thirty years, it has attracted a wide range of literary criticism both in the UK and the US. Feminist critics of English literature have been particularly interested by the ways in which the poet has adapted the traditional masculine heroic ethos of Old English poetry to a story figuring a violently active female protagonist.

 

Yet there is no available edition of Judith that is either comprehensive or up to date, or which at all explains how and why the poem is worthy of our attention. This new edition aims to fill this gap. It includes a full Introduction and commentary by the editor, plus a comprehensive glossary, bibliography and appendices.