Siege of Jerusalem

The Siege of Jerusalem has long confounded readers with its graphic depictions of violence and the relish with which it describes the suffering of Jewish people. Despite the moral and emotional challenges this text presents, its participation in the longstanding “Vengeance of Our Lord” tradition, discussed throughout medieval Christendom and incorporating a combination of legend, miracle, historiography, and chivalric romance, provides modern readers with a wider window into this material’s reception and reuse in medieval England. This Middle English alliterative poem, written anonymously sometime in the fourteenth century, chronicles the Siege of Jerusalem in the year 70 C.E., beginning with the crucifixion of Jesus and culminating in the Romans’ destruction of the Second Temple, intended to symbolize the vengeance of Jesus. Michael Livingston’s edition and notes bring out a new dimension of this poem, exploring the ways in which it realizes, rather than glorifies, the brutalities of war.