Judita v Biblii a staroanglickej básni

Abstract

The article deals with the deuterocanonical Book of Judith which was famously rendered from Aramaic into Latin by the patron of all translators, Saint Jerome (c. 345 – 420) virtually overnight and included in his translation of the Bible known as the Vulgate. More specifically, the article focuses on the text’s rendition into Anglo-Saxon by an anonymous Anglo-Saxon poet whose text is often anthologized and poses part of university curricula. The only extant original manuscript of the Anglo-Saxon Judith is found on the famous Beowulf manuscript, partially damaged during the infamous fire of 1731 which decimated Robert Bruce Cotton’s (1571 – 1631) private collection of historical manuscripts, charters, rolls and seals. (1) Using the comparative method, the author of the paper takes an observant look at the Modern-English translation of Judith by the contemporary British literary scholar Elaine Treharne, and compares it with the deuterocanonical Book of Judith as found in the Slovak Catholic version of the Bible (Sväté písmo Starého i Nového zákona). The main objective of the proposed paper is to find out how the Book of Judith was altered to accommodate to the Anglo-Saxon readership. In the text, the author coins new terminology – primary and secondary elements of inculturation and lists examples of them as found in the Anglo-Saxon version of Judith. Thus, the Anglo-Saxon version of the Book of Judith cannot be considered a translation proper, but an inculturational adaptation. As part of his research, the author of the article produces his own second-hand translation of the Anglo-Saxon Judith from (modern) English into Slovak for the sake of Slovak readership.