CHAPTER IX

"Judith," a great poem founded on Scripture story. Authorship uncertain.
Part of it lost. Quotations from it. Description of Holofernes'
banquet as of a Saxon feast. Story of Judith dwelt on to encourage
resistance to Danes and Northmen.


To-day we shall think about some more of the great poetry that was made
before the Norman Conquest, and we shall first take one of the finest
and most characteristic poems which remain to us, a poem founded on
Bible story; the great poem, of which we have unfortunately only a part,
the "Judith."

It is not certain who wrote this poem: it may have been Cynewulf; but we
do not know.

The story of Judith is a well-known one; the story of the Hebrew lady
who is described in the foreword to the Book of Judith as "that
illustrous woman, by whose virtue and fortitude, and armed with prayer,
the children of Israel were preserved from the destruction threatened
them by Holofernes and his great army."

The earlier part of the poem is lost, so we can only guess how the poet
told of the ravage wrought by the general of King Nabuchodonoser in the
countries close to Palestine, and how submission was as vain as
resistance to a power which, for the time being, was allowed to be so
terribly great.