Judith

Beowulf by Author Unknown (sometime in the 9th or 10th century)

Inevitably, Judith is read in conjunction with Beowulf, the much-anthologized Medieval Old English battle epic. Because Judith was bound in the same codex and bears some thematic and stylistic similarities to Beowulf, scholars have conjectured that they may have been written by the same poet. In both epics, a central hero, driven by Christian faith, stands up against and ultimately defeats a monstrous pagan foe.

“Judith” by Vicki Feaver (1994)

A contemporary psychological take on the story of Judith and Holofernes, this poem assumes the biblical characterization of Judith as a grieving widow. The poem, which inhabits Judith’s mind at the moment of the killing, squares how Judith can be both pious widow and bloodthirsty murderer who, helpless and driven by grief over the death of her husband, slays the general at the moment he himself is helpless.

“Judith and Holofernes” A. H. Jerriod Avant (2023)

Inspired by one of the numerous Renaissance paintings that depict Judith’s execution of Holofernes, the poem investigates how the poet studies the painting itself. The author ponders the terrible beauty of insurrection and the bloody cost of resisting unreasonable and immoral authority.