Caedmon

Overview

Caedmon, also spelled as Cædmon, was an Anglo-Saxon poet who lived in the seventh century. He is considered the first recorded English poet, and his story is an important part of early English literature. While little is known about his life, his poetry and legacy have left a lasting impression on English literature.

Life of Caedmon

The life of Caedmon is shrouded in mystery. His story is first recorded by the Venerable Bede in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People written in the early eighth century, about a century after Caedmon lived. According to Bede, Caedmon was a herdsman who worked at the monastery of Whitby in North Yorkshire, England. He was known for his piety and humble demeanor, but he was also illiterate and unable to sing or compose poetry. One night, after he had left a feast to tend the cows, he fell asleep and had a dream in which he was visited by a divine figure who asked him to sing. In his dream, Caedmon found himself singing a beautiful hymn that he had never heard before. When he woke up, he remembered the words and composed more verses, which he then took to the reeve (chief magistrate) the next day. The reeve was so impressed that he took Caedmon to abbess Hilda, who was the leader of the double-monastery at Whitby.

Abbess Hilda recognized Caedmon’s talent and encouraged him to continue composing poetry. According to Bede, Hilda “…encouraged him to abandon secular life and take monastic vows, and supported him in his new vocation, even providing him with learned scholars to teach him biblical history.” With the support and guidance of Hilda and the other monks, Caedmon continued to compose religious poetry in Old English.

Old English manuscript with red letter at the bottom.



Folio 129r of Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Hatton 43, with Cædmon’s Hymn in the lower margin

Poetry

Unfortunately, only a few fragments of Caedmon’s poetry have survived, and they were recorded by later writers. The only surviving complete poem attributed to Caedmon is the Hymn of Creation, which was recorded by Bede in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People. This poem celebrates the creation of the world and the power of God as the creator of all things. Here is a translation of the poem by Benjamin Thorpe:

Now we ought to praise the Guardian of the heavenly kingdom, the might of the Creator, and his counsel, the deeds of the Father of glory: how he, the eternal God, was the author of all marvels, who first created for the children of men heaven as a roof, and then the Guardian of mankind, the Almighty, afterwards created the world.

Other surviving fragments of Caedmon’s poetry were preserved in the writings of later Anglo-Saxon and medieval authors. For example, a few lines of a poem on the Exodus are preserved in an Old English translation of the Bible called the Junius Manuscript, which dates from the 10th century. Similarly, a few lines of a poem on the Crucifixion are preserved in the Vercelli Book, an anthology of Old English poetry compiled in the 10th century.

The attribution of the Crucifixion poem to Caedmon is not certain, as there are no explicit references to the author within the text of the Vercelli Book. However, the poem shares many of the themes and motifs that are associated with Caedmon’s work, such as a focus on Christian themes and a strong sense of imagery and metaphor. It is also possible that the poem was originally part of a larger work by Caedmon that has been lost over time.

These surviving fragments of Caedmon’s poetry provide some insight into his style and subject matter, but they are not sufficient to reconstruct his oeuvre or fully understand his impact on early English literature.

Death

According to Bede, Caedmon was afflicted by an illness fourteen days before his death. It is not known what sickness afflicted him, but that he knew he was at the end of his life. He went to a building that was known to hold the infirm, and those who were close to death, where he asked the attending monks to prepare a bed and the Eucharist for him. The monks were puzzled as they saw nothing wrong with Caedmon, but did as he requested. After he took the Eucharist, he asked the monks if he had any quarrels or grudges against him and they said that they had none. After hearing this he went to bed and died in his sleep.