SOURCE: Timmer, B. J. Introduction to Judith, edited by B. J. Timmer, pp. 1-16. Exeter, Eng.: University of Exeter, 1978.

In the following essay, originally published in 1952, Timmer surveys previous scholarly perspectives on Judith and offers his own theory regarding the work's date as well as comments on its literary merits.

Date

Judith is a good example of the difficulty of assigning a date to Old English poetry, for it has been put at various dates from the seventh to the tenth century or even later. Some of the earlier editors ascribed it to Cædmon, others to Cynewulf or his school. Both these theories may now be rejected on account of the phonological evidence, if not for other reasons.

The first to give a definite date to the poem was Cook, who propounded the theory (ed. 1904, xi) that “the poem of Judith was composed in or about the...