Rewriting the Old Testament in Anglo-Saxon Verse

Samantha Zacher is Associate Professor of English at Cornell University, USA. She is the author of Preaching the Converted: the Style and Rhetoric of the Vercelli Book Homilies (2009), and co-editor with Andy Orchard of New Readings in the Vercelli Book (2009).

• Introduction: The Bible as Literature in Anglo-Saxon England \ 1. Reading and Rewriting the Bible in Anglo-Saxon England \ 2. Reconstructing the Ethnogenetic Myths of the Hebrews in Exodus \ 3. Daniel and the Theme of translatio electionis \ 4. Reading Religious, Racial, and Ethnic Difference in Judith \ 5. Conclusion \ Bibliography \ Index.

In Rewriting the Old Testament in Anglo-Saxon Verse, Samantha Zacher brilliantly reasserts the centrality and importance of retellings of ancient Jewish history in the Old English poetic tradition, and almost casually offers dramatic new insights into three poems, namely Exodus, Daniel, and Judith, that all deserve to be better read, and have never yet been read so well. This is a deeply thoughtful and thought-provoking book, well worthy of its wise and witty author: elegant, perceptive, savvy, and full of poise and grace; I only wish it were mine!