Heroic Elements in Judges 5

Abstract:Approaching the "Song of Deborah" in Judges 5 specifically as a "heroic poem," one recognizes some of its motifs, language, and style as features common to its genre, rather than as being unique to the biblical poem itself. That is, while Judges 5 is rightly regarded a venerable relic of ancient Israelite song, it is also a distinctive exemplar of heroic poetry as found in a wide variety of traditions and periods, composed in any number of different languages. Thus, for example, as in other like poems, heroic values are dramatized and promoted in Judges 5 through often ironic contrastive characterizations of what is deemed praiseworthy and blameworthy behavior. The following is a comparative study of Judges 5 and the Old English (Anglo-Saxon) poem referred to as "The Battle of Maldon," supplemented by parallels drawn from ancient, medieval, and later heroic literature.