Cædmon

Cædmon memorial in St Mary's Church graveyard in Whitby

Cædmon was a late 7th century English poet. He is the first poet in English literature known by name and one of only twelve Old English poets whose names have been passed down. Cædmon's career is described in the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum of the Beda Venerabilis ; According to Beda's account, he was a simple shepherd who was given the gift of poetry in a dream.

Only nine long lines of a creation hymn of his work have survived . Along with the runic inscriptions on the Ruthwell cross and the Auzon rune box, they are the oldest evidence of the Old English language.

Life

Beda's report

According to Beda, Cædmon was a shepherd of the northern English double monastery Streonæshalch (today's ruined monastery is known as Whitby Abbey ). One evening, when the monks of the monastery were chatting and playing the harp, he withdrew sadly because he did not know any songs and lay down next to his animals. In the dream "someone" ( quidem ) approached him and asked him to sing about the "beginning of the creatures" ( principium creaturarum ). At first he refused, but in the end wrote a short poem of praise to God and his creation.

When he woke up the next morning, he remembered this dream poem and then wrote a few additional lines. After telling others about the gift he had been given in a dream, the abbess of the monastery interrogated him, who came to the conclusion that Cædmon had indeed received a gift from God. To be sure, she asked him to write another poem. When Cædmon actually produced the requested poem the next morning, his calling was finally recognized. He took the monastery vows and thus became a lay brother of the abbey. The abbess urged the other monks to instruct him in the doctrine and history of the Church, which he should put in melodious verses. According to Beda, Cædmon created an extensive poetic work. After a long and godly life, he died peacefully. When he felt his death approaching, he was put to bed in the monastic hospice at his request, gathered his friends around him and passed away shortly before the reading of the nocturnes .

Dating

Bede gives no dates in his description of Cædmon's life. He is said to have taken the vow at an advanced age; at least part of his time as a monk is said to have fallen during the time when Saint Hilda was the abbess of the monastery (657–680). Chapter 25 of Book IV of the Historia ecclesiastica allows the conclusion that Cædmon died around the time ( his temporibus ) when a great fire broke out in Coldingham Abbey. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle gives the year 679 for this event, but Bede dates it at least two years later; the next datable event in his Historia is Ecgfrith's campaign in Ireland in 684. However, it is possible that the relevant passage in Beda's chronicle does not refer to Cædmon's death, but rather generally to his work. On the basis of this information, the beginning of Cædmon's creative period can be narrowed down to a point in time between the years 657 and 680, his date of death to the years 679 to 684.

Name research

Beda wrote that (Old) English was Cædmon's "own" language, but according to the findings of modern linguistics, his proper name is of Celtic origin (Proto-Welsh * Cadṽan , British * Catumandos ); hence it is likely that he was himself a Celt, or at least bilingual. Some researchers also believe to have identified similarities between Cædmon's hymn to Old Irish poetry and interpret this as an indication of its Celtic origin.

Other researchers suspect, however, that Beda's account of the poet monk should be read as an allegory and Cædmon's name as a speaking name ; in this theory the name is interpreted as a modification of Adam Kadmon .

Other medieval sources

The only further mention of Cædmon can be found in the 10th century Old English translation of Beda's Historia . This contains some details that go beyond the report in the original Latin version. Cædmon is said to have felt ashamed before his vision that he was ignorant of singing; The translation also says that Hilda's copyists wrote Cædmon's verses "from his lips" ( æt muðe ). These deviations from Beda's account in no way lead to the conclusion that there was an English tradition of Cædmon's story independent of Beda.

The Heliand

An allusion to Cædmon can be found in two related Latin texts in the vicinity of the Old Saxon Heliand epic. These writings, a Praefatio (preface) including Versus de Poeta (About the Poet), report on the alleged origins of the Old Saxon biblical epic (of which only the Heliand and the rest of a Genesis have survived) in words that resemble Beda's account of Cædmon and sometimes even agree in wording. According to the Praefatio , the Old Saxon poem was written on behalf of Emperor Louis the Pious by a poet who knew nothing about poetry until he was asked in a dream to put the rules of divine law in vernacular (i.e. Saxon, not Latin) poetry. The Versus de Poeta describe this dream in more detail; accordingly the poet was a shepherd before his calling; the vision overtook him as he fell asleep after work one evening.

These two texts have only survived in one edition by Matthias Flacius from the 16th century, but based on grammatical and semantic analyzes it can be assumed that they were written in the Middle Ages, possibly as early as the 12th century.

plant

According to Beda's report, Cædmon created an extensive body of vernacular (i.e. Old English) religious poetry. In contrast to the poetry of Saints Aldhelm von Sherborne and Dunstan , he wrote exclusively on religious subjects, including, according to Bede, creation songs, translations from the New and Old Testaments, and songs about the “horrors of Judgment Day and Hell, and the joys of heaven ".

From this work only the first nine lines of his first work have survived, i.e. the poem that he was asked to write in his dream. Other vernacular poems, the content of which corresponds to Beda's description of Cædmon's works, are preserved in the so-called Cædmon manuscript , but due to stylistic differences to Cædmon's hymn it is very unlikely that they were actually written by Cædmon.

The only surviving work by Cædmon is thus the nine-line fragment of a creation song. It has survived in 21 manuscript copies and is therefore the most widely attested poem in Old English literature after the song of the dead of Bede.

The oldest known manuscript copy of Cædmon Hymnus can be found in the "Moore Bede", dated around 737
(Cambridge, Kk.5.16, f. 128v):

Nu scylun hergan hefaenricaes uard	Now let us praise the keeper of the heavenly kingdom
metudæs maecti end his modgidanc	the power of the creator and his thoughts
uerc uuldurfadur— sue he uundra gihuaes	the work of the glorious Father, as of each of the miracles
eci dryctin or astelidæ	the eternal Lord created the beginning.
he aerist scop aelda barnum	He created for the sons of men first
lift til hrofe haleg scepen	the sky as a roof, the holy creator,
tha middungeard moncynnæs uard	then Middle-earth the keeper of humanity,
eci dryctin æfter tiadæ	the eternal God, later made,
firum foldu frea allectig	the earth for men, the almighty Lord.

literature

• Th. M. Andersson: The Cædmon fiction in the "Heliand" Preface. In: Publications of the Modern Language Association 89, 1974, pp. 278-84.
• CJE Ball: Homonymy and polysemy in Old English: A problem for lexicographers. In: Problems of Old English lexicography: studies in memory of Angus Cameron , ed.A. Bammesberger. Eichstätter contributions, 15. Pustet, Regensburg 1985, pp. 39-46.
• JB Bessinger Jr .: Homage to Cædmon and others: A Beowulfian praise song. In: Old English Studies in Honor of John C. Pope . Ed. Robert B. Burlin, Edward B. Irving, Jr. and Marie Borroff. 91-106. University of Toronto Press, Toronto 1974, pp. 91-106.
• B. Colgrave, RAB Mynors: Bede's Ecclesiastical history of the English people . OUP, Oxford 1969.
• V. Day: The influence of the catechetical "narratio" on Old English and some other medieval literature. In: Anglo-Saxon England 3, 1975, pp. 51-61.
• E. v. K. Dobbie: The manuscripts of "Cædmon's Hymn" and "Bede's Death Song" with a critical text of the "Epistola Cuthberti de obitu Bedae". In: Columbia University Studies in English and Comparative Literature 128. Columbia, New York 1937.
• D. Dumville: "Beowulf" and the Celtic world: The uses of evidence. In: Traditio 37, 1981, pp. 109-160.
• DW Fritz: Cædmon: a traditional Christian poet. In: Mediaevalia 31, 1969, pp. 334–337.
• DK Fry: Caedmon as formulaic poet . In: Oral literature: Seven essays . Ed. JJ Duggan. Scottish Academic Press, Edinburgh 1975, pp. 41-61.
• DK Fry: Old English formulaic statistics . In: In Geardagum 3, 1979, pp. 1-6.
• I. Gollancz: The Cædmon manuscript of Anglo-Saxon biblical poetry: Junius XI in the Bodleian Library . British Academy, Oxford 1927.
• DH Green: The Carolingian lord: semantic studies on four Old High German words: "Balder", "Frô", "Truhtin", "Hêrro" . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1965.
• CB Hieatt: Cædmon in context: Transforming the formula . In: Journal of English and Germanic Philology 84, 1985, pp. 485-497.
• DR Howlett: The theology of Caedmon's Hymn . In: Leeds Studies in English 7, 1974, pp. 1-12.
• KW Humphreys, ASC Ross: Further manuscripts of Bede's "Historia ecclesiastica", of the "Epistola Cuthberti de obitu Bedae", and further Anglo-Saxon texts of "Cædmon's Hymn" and "Bede's Death Song" . In: Notes and Queries 220, 1975, pp. 50-55.
• CA Ireland: The Celtic background to the story of Caedmon and his Hymn . Unpublished Ph.D. diss. UCLA, California 1986.
• K. Jackson: Language and history in early Britain . Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 1953.
• F. Klaeber: The Christian elements in Beowulf . In: Anglia 35, 1912, pp. 111-136.
• GA Lester: The Cædmon story and its analogues . In: Neophilologus 58, 1974 pp. 225-237.
• JS Miletich: Old English "formulaic" studies and Cædmon's Hymn in a comparative context . In: Festschrift for Nikola R. Pribic . Ed. Josip Matesic and Erwin Wendel. Selecta Slav. 9, Hieronymus, Neuried 1983, pp. 183-194.
• B. Mitchell: Cædmon's Hymn line 1: What is the subject of scylun or its variants? In: Leeds Studies in English 16, 1985, pp. 190–197.
• L. Morland: Cædmon and the Germanic tradition . In: De Gustibus: Essays for Alain Renoir . Ed. John Miles Foley, J. Chris Womack, and Whitney A. Womack. Garland Reference Library of the Humanities 1482, Garland, New York 1992, pp. 324-358.
• Geoffrey I. Needham :  Caedmon. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 4, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1981, ISBN 3-11-006513-4 , pp. 305-308.
• DP O'Donnell: A Northumbrian version of "Cædmon's Hymn". (Northumbrian "eordu" recension) in Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale MS 8245-8257, ff. 62r2-v1: Identification, edition, and filiation. In: Beda Venerabilis: Historian, monk, and Northumbrian . Ed. LAJR Houwen and AA MacDonald "Mediaevalia Groningana" 19, Forsten, Groningen 1996, pp. 139-165.
• DP O'Donnell: Cædmon's Hymn, A multimedia study, edition, and witness archive . In: SEENET A. 7, DS Brewer, Cambridge 2005.
• C. O'Hare: The story of Cædmon: Bede's account of the first English poet . In: American Benedictine Review 43, 1992, pp. 345-57.
• K. O'B O'Keeffe: Visible song: Transitional literacy in Old English verse . In: Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England 4, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1990.
• J. Opland: Anglo-Saxon oral poetry: A study of the traditions . Yale University Press, New Haven 1980.
• P. Orton: The transmission of the West Saxon versions of "Cædmon's Hymn": A reappraisal. In: Studia Neophilologica 70, 1998, pp. 153-164.
• F. Palgrave: Observations on the history of Cædmon . In: Archaeologia 24, 1832, pp. 341-342.
• C. Plummer: Venerabilis Baedae: Historia ecclesiastica gentis anglorum, historiam abbatum, epistola ad Ecgberctum una cum historia abbatum . Oxford 1896.
• L. Pound: "Cædmon's dream song". In: Studies in English philology: A miscellany in honor of Frederick Klaeber , Ed. Kemp Malone and Martin B. Ruud, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis 1929, pp. 232-239.
• U. Schwab: Cædmon . Testi e Studi: Pubblicazioni dell'Istituto di Lingue e Letterature Germanic, Università di Messina. Peloritana Editrice, Messina 1972.
• AH Smith: Three Northumbrian poems: Cædmon's Hymn, Bede's Death Song and the Leiden Riddle . With a bibliography compiled by MJ Swanton. Revised edition. Exeter Medieval English Texts and Studies. University of Exeter Press, Exeter 1978.
• D. Whitelock: The Old English Bede . Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial Lecture, 1962. In: Proceedings of the British Academy 48, 1963, pp. 57-93.
• Charles Leslie Wrenn : The poetry of Cædmon . Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial Lecture, 1945. In: Proceedings of the British Academy 32, 1945, pp. 277-295.