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Judith is an Old English narrative poem that adapts
into the medium of Germanic heroic verse the Old Testament story
(apocryphal in Protestant tradition) of the Bethulian widow Judith,
who saves her people by daringly going to the camp of the besieging
Assyrian army, accompanied only by a maid-servant, and there
succeeds in killing the Assyrian leader Holofernes. Judith uses her
seductive powers to get Holofernes drunk and then beheads him in
his tent before making her escape back to the city of Bethulia. The
discovery that their leader is dead causes confusion among the
Assyrians, who retreat in disorderly flight. The biblical book ends
with Judith’s hymn of praise to the Lord and with celebration among
the people for …

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