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Article: Epanalepsis: a retelling of the Judith story in the Anglo-Saxon poetic language.
- Article from:
- Studies in the Literary Imagination
- Article date:
- March 22, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Georgia State University, Department of English. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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ANGLO-SAXON JUDITH: A NEW SYMMETRY
One of the most well-liked poems written in Old English, Judith has nonetheless defied straightforward categorization. Its source material would place it among scriptural narratives, a prolific genre in Anglo-Saxon poetry since Caedmon, England's first named poet who, according to Bede, composed poems based on the Bible chronologically spanning the Creation and the Last Judgment (Historia Ecclesiastica 4.24). But, unlike the Junius Manuscript (earlier called the Caedmon Manuscript), which is dedicated almost entirely to Old Testament narrative pieces like Genesis, Exodus, and Daniel, (1) the manuscript in which Judith appears, ...