Shaming the non-Christian in Old English Juliana and Judith : Weaponised emotions and Viking raids in Early Medieval England*

Abstract

This article analyses the similarities between Juliana and Judith, two Old English poems representing heroines confronting their heathen assailants. The poems, devoted to a female saint and female biblical figure, respectively, display instances of physical and emotional violence and domination directed by women characters towards their un-Christian and heathen opponents. The article discusses the psychological potency of deploying depictions of feminine violence for mixed-gender audiences of the poems. Analysing how the poems apply the emotions of disgust, fear, and, predominantly, shame as motivating emotional states, this article proves their effectiveness in depicting militant femininity in an ideological confrontation with male adversaries. Given the contexts of the two poems, it is more than probable that their original audiences may have found not simply echoes but direct references to confrontations with Scandinavian raids of the ninth, tenth and eleventh centuries in the monstrous representations of the women's antagonists. This article discusses the reasons women heroines proved narratively effective in confronting heathen enemies and argues that these poems acted therapeutically, offering a much-needed morale boost to the clerical and upper-class audiences of the poems.