SOURCE: Litton, Alfred G. “The Heroine as Hero: Gender Reversal in the Anglo-Saxon Judith.” CEA Critic 56, no. 1 (fall 1993): 35-44.

In the following essay, Litton examines what he views as a fascination with gender role reversal on the part of the anonymous author of Judith.

Few literary scholars, when asked to cite examples of works containing complex male-female relationships or works presenting intriguing issues concerning gender roles, would immediately summon to mind the poetry of the Anglo-Saxon period. Indeed, most readers are accustomed to viewing the typical female character in Anglo-Saxon poems as the sort of stoic helpmate who, as Tacitus observed, “enters into a common undertaking [with her husband] of labors and dangers, to face and endure as much in peace as in times of battle” (284). Rarely, for example, do readers of Beowulf consider that poem's presentation of women such as Wealtheow or Freawaru as anything but illustrative...