Cædmon is one of only two Anglo-Saxon poets whose names are known (the other being Cynewulf). According to Bede, writing in the 7th century, Cædmon was a cow-herd at a Yorkshiremonastery, who was unable to sing in public until he miraculously found himself able to sing the Creation, a poem of nine lines. Saint Hilda, the abbess of Whitby Abbey, encouraged his new calling and asked him to join the monastery. The poem we know as "Cædmon's Hymn" was written down by Bede in Latin in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People. The Anglo-Saxon version commonly read today is not, in actuality, Cædmon's own work, but comes from an Anglo-Saxon translation of Bede's history made sometime during the reign of Alfred the Great.
Now we should praise the heaven-kingdom's guardian,
metudæs maecti end his modgidanc
the measurer's might and his mind-conception,
uerc uuldurfadur sue he uundra gihuaes
work of the glorious father, as he each wonder,
eci dryctin or astelidæ
eternal Lord, instilled at the origin.
he aerist scop aelda barnum
He first created for men's sons
heben til hrofe haleg scepen
heaven as a roof, holy creator;
tha middungeard moncynnæs uard
then, middle-earth, mankind's guardian,
eci dryctin æfter tiadæ
eternal Lord, afterward made
firum foldu frea allmectig
the earth for men, father almighty.
The text of the poem, as it appears here, was transcribed from a facsimile of the Moore manuscript of Bede. It is the oldest surviving text in the English language.
External links
Caedmon at Whitby Attractions (http://www.whitby-uk.com/cgi-bin/site.nav/whitby.pl?page=caedmon)
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