Old English poem «Judith» as a reflection of Anglo-Saxon early medieval mentality

Abstract

The article analyzes the reflection of the Western European early medieval mentality in the Оld English poem «Judith». The following research methods were used: clustering (formation of a cluster of verbal reflections of mental attitudes) and historical-semantic analysis of objects included in the cluster. Poem «Judith» information, connected with the mentality, concerns two lines: the motivation to participate in the battle, and the posthumous punishment of the main antagonist of Holofernes. The analysis allowed the author to draw the following conclusions. Firstly, the poem «Judith» is not a direct poetic paraphrase of the eponymous book of the Оld Testament. The text contains a number of additions that carry completely new information, revealing in particular problems associated with the mentality (Judith speech, the posthumous fate of Holofernes). Secondly, the poem «Judith» allows us to distinguish two levels in the mentality of Anglo-Saxon society – basic one and emerging. The first of them is represented by the concept of «glory» (wuldor and tir). The use of the word wuldor indicates a significant stability of structures associated with the foundations of the mentality of society. For Anglo-Saxon society such a basis was war and glory. The glory had been denoted by the word, rooted in the days of the Old German community (linked to the Gothic language), and unknown to the Vikings. The same stability shows respect for the leader of the enemy troops. The second level is represented by the image of «snake hall» (wyrm-sele), which was formed during the wars with the Vikings in the 10th century for the liberation of the occupied territories. Thirdly, the presence of two levels in the mentality allows author to consider the period of its formation as open. Thus the innovation, arised under Scandinavian influence, was not entrenched in mentality.