Like Beowulf, Judith conveys a moral tale of heroic triumph over monstrous beings, if we follow the supposition of Andy Orchard’s Pride and Prodigies: Studies in the Monsters of the Beowulf Manuscript. Both moral and political, the poem tells of a brave woman’s efforts to save and protect her people. Judith is depicted as an exemplar woman, grounded by ideal morale, probity, courage, and religious conviction. Judith's character is rendered blameless and virtuous, and her beauty is praised. In line 109, Judith is referred to as an ides ellenrof, "a brave woman". The author gives her the entitlement of a halige meowle (line 56), "holy woman", and a snoteran idese (line 55), "wise woman", whilst her appearance is described as aelfscinu (line 13), "elf-shining", "beautiful". Although Judith kills a man, she appears to be doing God's will; Holofernes, while described to some extent as a standard military leader in the Beowulfian vein, is also cast as a salacious drunk and becomes monstrous in his excess.
Portraying the epitome of Germanic heroism, Judith was likely composed during a time of war as a model for the Anglo-Saxon people. The Abbot Ælfric similarly created his own homiletic interpretation of the Book of Judith. At the time of his creation, Vikings were ransacking England. Ælfric professed that Judith was to serve as an example to the people. In a letter, Ælfric wrote: þeo is eac on English on ure wisan iset eow mannum to bisne, þet ge eower eard mid wæpnum beweriæn wið onwinnende here, meaning "It is also set as an example for you in English according to our style, so that you will defend your land with weapons against an attacking force".[5]
Ælfric’s Judith is quite like that of the poem; furthermore, the characters seem to have served the same purpose—to stand as an example to the people in a time of war. Judith's city of Bethulia was being plundered by Assyrians. Holofernes was an Assyrian general and king, often drunk and constantly monstrous.
The Vulgate Liber Iudith, the posited source text of these works, has been mutilated in order to contain the Anglo-Saxon heroic mode:
“Perhaps the most striking difference between the Old English Judith and the Vulgate version is the setting of the story. In the Vulgate version of the story, Judith’s people, the citizens of Bethulia in particular and the Israelites in general, are shown as more religious than martial, led by priests and elders,rather than kings and generals. The Old English poet deliberately chose to place Judith in a more military setting. Thus, the seeming paradox of a woman as the military leader of her people is not just the result of a difficulty in adapting a biblical story to a Germanic heroic idiom.”[6]
There are also key narrative details: the Old English Judith, after severing the head of Holofernes, proudly displayed his head to her Hebrew army and led them into a victorious battle against the Assyrians. In contrast, in the Book of Judith, the Assyrians simply fled Bethulia after discovering the deceased body of Holofernes.[7]
