Cædmon (fl. 658-680)
Cædmon's Hymn
MODERN ENGLISH TRANSLATION
Now let me praise the keeper of Heaven's kingdom,
the might of the Creator, and his thought,
the work of the Father of glory, how each of wonders
the Eternal Lord established in the beginning.
He first created for the sons of men
Heaven as a roof, the holy Creator,
then Middle-earth the keeper of mankind,
the Eternal Lord, afterwards made,
the earth for men, the Almighty Lord.
In the beginning Cædmon sang this poem.
Notes
1] 17 manuscripts of Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum (finished in 731), dated
from the 8th to the 15th centuries, contain the Anglo-Saxon version of the first poem by the
first known English poet, Cædmon. The two earliest of these manuscripts render the poem
in a Northumbrian dialect. The Cambridge University Library "Moore" manuscript appears in
an 8th-century hand, and the Leningrad manuscript can be precisely dated in 746. For the
circumstances of the making of this poem, see the notes on Cædmon's life.
Commentary by Ian Lancashire
(2002/9/9)
Caedmon gives hope to all would-be poets. For most of his life, he worked in animal
husbandry for a monastery, living with the non-religious, and reporting to the reeve, a
steward who superintended the abbess' estates. When the workers routinely ate together in
the hall at a table, they entertained each other by singing lyrics to a hand-held harp, passed
around. Surviving Old English poetry hints at what they sang about: historical battles like
Maldon, mythic heroes like Beowulf, lonely wanderers by land and sea such as Widsith, and
riddles. Before Caedmon's turn to sing came, he left for home or for the stable where he
kept the livestock overnight. One time, when his turn came to sleep with the animals, he
had a dream. In it a man called him by name and told him to sing. When Caedmon
explained that he could not sing to the others, the man asked him to sing to him instead.
When Caedmon said that he did not know what to sing about, the man told him, "the
Creation of all things." In the dream, Caedmon did so, with verses he had never heard
before. Awaking, he remembered his dream and the song, and added more to it.
1. Pick five and compare with Cædmon's Hymn. How do they differ from CH? How are
they similar? What are some of the common elements in the five lyrics you selected?
2. Do they “paint a portrait of a nation” or show a “slice of life?”