SOURCE: Fee, Christopher. “Judith and the Rhetoric of Heroism in Anglo-Saxon England.” English Studies 5 (September 1997): 401-6.

In the following essay, Fee maintains that the heroism of Judith in the Old English poem was altered from the Vulgate original to conform with Anglo-Saxon cultural ideals and expectations.

The Old English Judith differs from the Liber Iudith of the Vulgate at several crucial points, and in one particularly important way. In the Vulgate version of the story, Judith is a heroine in every sense of the word: she is a tropological symbol of Chastity at battle with Licentiousness, an allegorical symbol of the Church in its constant and eventually triumphant battle with Satan, and an inspirational figure who infuses her warriors with much needed courage and confidence; but the Vulgate Judith is also, in a very real sense, the agent by which God's will is executed and the Hebrews are...