Cædmon's Hymn is a shortOld English poem attributed toCædmon, a supposedly illiterate and unmusical cow-herder who was, according to the Northumbrian monkBede (d. 735), miraculously empowered to sing in honour ofGod the Creator. The poem is Cædmon's only surviving composition.
The poem has a claim to being the oldest surviving English poem: if Bede's account is correct, the poem was composed between 658 and 680, in the early stages of theChristianization of Anglo-Saxon England; even on the basis of the surviving manuscripts, the poem is the earliest securely dateable example of Old English verse.[1] Correspondingly, it is one of the oldest surviving samples of Germanicalliterative verse, constituting a prominent landmark for the study ofOld English literature and for the early use of traditional poetic form for Christian themes following the conversion ofearly medieval England to Christianity. Indeed, one scholar has argued that Bede perceived it as a continuation of Germanic praise poetry, which led him to include a Latin translation but not the original poem.[2]
The poem is also the Old English poem attested in the second largest number of manuscripts — twenty-one — afterBede's Death Song. These are all manuscripts of Bede'sEcclesiastical History of the English People. These manuscripts show significant variation in the form of the text, making it an important case-study for the scribal transmission of Old English verse.[3]
Cædmon's Hymn survives in Old English in twenty-one manuscripts, originally as marginal annotations to Bede's Latin account of the poem. Some of these manuscripts reflect theNorthumbrian dialect of Bede and (putatively) of Cædmon, and some reflect the transfer of the poem into theWest Saxon dialect. Whether due to change inoral tradition orscribal transmission, the text varies in different manuscripts. There is some debate as to the best translation of some of these variants.[4][5]
The following Old English text is a normalized reading of the oldest or second-oldest manuscript of the poem, the mid-eighth-century NorthumbrianMoore Bede (Cambridge, University Library, MS Kk. 5. 16). The translation notes key points of debate as to meaning, and variation in other manuscripts.
Nū scylun hergan hefaenrīcaes Uard,
metudæs maecti end his mōdgidanc,
uerc Uuldurfadur, suē hē uundra gihuaes,
ēci dryctin ōr āstelidæ
hē ǣrist scōp aelda barnum
heben til hrōfe, hāleg scepen.
Thā middungeard moncynnæs Uard,
eci Dryctin, æfter tīadæ
fīrum foldu, Frēa allmectig.[6]
Now [we] shall honour / heaven-kingdom's guardian,
the measurer's might / and his mind's plan,
the work of the father of glory[a] / as he of each wonder,
eternal lord, / the origin established;[b]
he first created[c] / for the children of men[d]
heaven for a roof, / holy creator.
ThenMiddle-earth / mankind's guardian,
eternal Lord, / after bestowed
the lands to men,[e] / Lord almighty.
Although the different Old English versions do not diverge from one another enormously, they vary enough that researchers have been able to reconstruct five substantively different variants of the poem, witnessed by different groups of the twenty-one manuscripts.[7]: §5.1 The following list links to critical editions of each by Daniel O'Donnell:[7]
One example of an attempted literary translation ofCædmon's Hymn (in this case of theeorðan recension) isHarvey Shapiro's 2011 rendering:[8]
Cædmon's Hymn survives only in manuscripts of Bede'sHistoria ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, which recounts the poem as part of an elaborate miracle-story. Bede's chronology suggests that these events took place under the abbacy ofHild of Whitby (658–80),[7]: §1 or in the decade after her death.[9] Whether Bede had this story directly from oral sources or whether he had access to a written account is a matter of debate,[10] but although world literature attests to many stories of poetic inspiration that recall Bede's, none is similar enough to be a likely source.[7]: §2 [11][12]
According to Bede, Cædmon was an illiterate cow-herder employed at the monastery ofWhitby who miraculously recited a Christian song of praise in Old English verse. In the story, Cædmon is attending a feast; when the revellers pass a harp around for all to sing a song, he leaves the hall, because he cannot contribute a song and feels ashamed. He falls asleep, and in a dream a man appears to him, and asks him to sing a song. Cædmon responds that he cannot sing, yet the man tells him to "Sing to me the beginning of all things". Cædmon is then able to sing verses and words that he had not heard of before. On waking, Cædmon reported his experience first to a steward then toHild, the abbess of Whitby. She invites scholars to evaluate Cædmon's gift, and he is tasked with turning more divine doctrine into song. Hild is so impressed with Cædmon's poetic gift that she encourages him to become a monk. He learns the history of the Christian church and creates more poems, such as the story ofGenesis and many other biblical stories. This impresses his teachers. Bede says that Cædmon, in composing verse, wanted to turn man from the love of sin to a love of good deeds. Cædmon is said to have died peacefully in his sleep after asking for theEucharist and making sure he was at peace with his fellow men.[13][14]
The following Latin text is the prose paraphrase of Cædmon's poem which Bede presents in hisHistoria ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum; Bede did not give the text in Old English:
"Nunc laudare debemus auctorem regni caelestis, potentiam creatoris, et consilium illius facta Patris gloriae: quomodo ille, cum sit aeternus Deus, omnium miraculorum auctor exstitit; qui primo filiis hominum caelum pro culmine tecti dehinc terram custos humani generis omnipotens creavit." Hic est sensus, non autem orde ipse uerborum, quae dormiens ille canebat; neque enim possunt carmina, quamuis optime conposita, ex alia in aliam linguam ad uerbum sine detrimento sui decoris ac dignitatis transferri.[15]
"Now we must praise the Maker of the heavenly kingdom, the power of the Creator and his counsel, the deeds of the Father of glory and how he, since he is the eternal God, was the Author of all marvels and first created the heavens as a roof for the children of men and then, the almightly Guardian of the human race, created the Earth." This is the sense but not the order of the words which he sang as he slept. For it is not possible to translate verse, however well composed, literally from one language to another without some loss of beauty and dignity.[16]
Many scholars have more or less accepted Bede's story, supposing that Cædmon existed and did composeCædmon's Hymn. They infer that Cædmon's poem then circulated inoral tradition, that Bede knew it as an oral poem, and that his Latin paraphrase of the poem was a close rendering of this text. They then infer that other members of Bede's community also knew this orally transmitted Old English poem by heart, and that the text added into the margins of manuscripts of hisHistoria ecclesiastica shortly after his death is essentially the same poem that Cædmon composed and Bede knew.[10][17]
However, it is also possible that although the Old English poem was indeed in oral tradition prior to Bede, the story of its composition is a fabrication.[10]
Meanwhile, the content of Bede's Latin paraphrase is somewhat different from all the surviving Old English texts. Scholars have debated why this might be. Most scholars think that Bede was translating from a (probably oral) version of the Old English poem like one of the surviving versions, but doing so loosely. The earliest Old English version of theHymn might have been the one that is most similar to Bede's text, in which case other Old English versions diverged from it in oral or scribal transmission. On the other hand, the earliest version might have been the one that is least similar to Bede's text, and Old English versions that are more similar to Bede's text might have been adapted by scribes to make them more similar to Bede's Latin.[7]: §5
Some have even argued that the Old English text does not predate Bede's Latin at all, but originated as a (somewhat loose) verse translation of Bede's Latin text.[7]: §B
All copies of theCædmon's Hymn are found in manuscripts of Bede's LatinHistoria ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum or the Old English translation of that text; twenty-one manuscripts of the Old English poem, dating from the eighth century to the sixteenth, are known to have existed.[18][7]: §4
This list is based on the survey by Paul Cavill.[18] Hyperlinks to O'Donnell's descriptions of each manuscript are provided from the shelf-marks, and to his facsimiles and transcriptions from folio numbers.[7]
| Siglum | Shelf-mark | Origin | Version of Bede | Dialect ofHymn | Folio | notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M | Kk. 5. 16, Cambridge, University Library (theMoore Bede) | 734 x 737 | Latin | Northumbrian | 128v | |
| L | lat. Q. v. I. 18, St. Petersburg, Saltykov-Schedrin Public Library (theSaint Petersburg Bede) | first half of eighth century | Latin | Northumbrian | 107r | |
| Tr1 | R. 5. 22, Cambridge, Trinity College | Fourteenth-century | Latin | West Saxon | 32v | |
| Bd | Bodley 163, Oxford, Bodleian Library | Mid-eleventh-century | Latin | West Saxon | 152v | A corrector's attempt to remove the poem from the text has made it largely illegible. |
| H | Hatton 43, Oxford, Bodleian Library | Mid-eleventh-century | Latin | West Saxon | 129r | |
| Ln | Lat. 31, Oxford, Lincoln College | Mid-twelfth-century | Latin | West Saxon | 83r | |
| Mg | Lat. 105, Oxford, Magdalen College | Mid-twelfth-century | Latin | West Saxon | 99r | |
| W | I, Winchester, Cathedral | Mid-eleventh-century | Latin | West Saxon | 81r | |
| T1 | Tanner 10, Oxford, Bodleian Library (the Tanner Bede) | First half of tenth century | Old English | West Saxon | 100r | |
| C | Cotton Otho B. xi, London, British Library | Mid-tenth to early eleventh-century | Old English | West Saxon | The section containingCædmon's Hymn was destroyed in the 1731Cottonian fire. | |
| N | Additional 43703, London, British Library | Sixteenth-century | Old English | West Saxon | pp. 25-25 | Transcription of Otho B. xi byLaurence Nowell, predating the loss ofCædmon's Hymn. |
| O | 279, Oxford, Corpus Christi College | Early eleventh-century | Old English | West Saxon | part ii, f. 112v | |
| Ca | Kk. 3. 18, Cambridge, University Library | Second quarter of eleventh century | Old English | West Saxon | 72v | |
| B1 | 41, Cambridge, Corpus Christi College | First quarter of eleventh century | Old English | West Saxon | p. 322 | |
| Ld1 | Laud Misc. 243, Oxford, Bodleian Library | First quarter of twelfth century | Old English | West Saxon | 82v | |
| Hr | P. 5.i, Hereford, Cathedral Library | First quarter of twelfth century | Old English | West Saxon | 116v | |
| Di | 547 [334], Dijon, Bibliothèque Publique | Twelfth-century | Latin | Northumbrian | 59v | |
| P1 | Lat 5237, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale | c. 1430 | Latin | Northumbrian | 72v | |
| Br | 8245-57, Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale | 1489 | Latin | Northumbrian | 62r-v | |
| LCA | M.6, London, College of Arms | Twelfth-century | Latin | West Saxon | 86v | |
| SM | HM. 35300, San Marino CA, Huntington Library | Mid-fifteenth-century | Latin | West Saxon | 82r | |
| To | 134, Tournai, Bibliothèque de la Ville | Twelfth-century | Latin | West Saxon | 78v | Destroyed in 1940, but survives in facsimile |
In the Latin copies,Cædmon's Hymn appears as agloss to Bede's Latin translation of the Old English poem. Despite its close connection with Bede's work, the Old EnglishHymn does not appear to have been transmitted with the LatinHistoria ecclesiastica regularly until relatively late in its textual history: where the Old English text appears in a Latin manuscript, it was often added by a scribe other than the one responsible for the main text. In three manuscript (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Laud Misc. 243; Oxford, Bodleian Library, Hatton 43; and Winchester, Cathedral I) the poem was copied by scribes working a quarter-century or more after the main text was first set down.[19][20] Even when the poem is in the same hand as the manuscript's main text, there is little evidence to suggest that it was copied from the same exemplar as the LatinHistoria: nearly identical versions of the Old English poem are found in manuscripts belonging to different recensions of the Latin text; closely related copies of the LatinHistoria sometimes contain very different versions of the Old English poem.[7]: §7
Despite the name, it is not ahymn in the narrow sense of the formal and structural criteria ofhymnody. It is, instead, a piece of traditional Old Englishalliterative poetry, which seems to have been composed as an oral piece to be sung aloud; it is characterised byformulaic diction shared by much other Old English poetry, and has been seen as a case-study for the application oforal-formulaic theory to Old English verse.[21][22][23]: 382–84
Notwithstanding Bede's praise ofCædmon's Hymn in hisHistoria ecclesiastica, modern critics have not generally regarded the poem as a great aesthetic success.[7]: §3.1 The poem is, however, metrically regular; like other Old English verse, the nine lines of theHymn are divided into half-lines by acaesura, with the first most heavily stressed syllable in the first half alliterating with the first most heavily stressed syllable in the second. Although Bede presents the poem as innovative in handling Christian subject matter, its language and style is consistent with traditional Old English poetic style. It is generally acknowledged that the text can be separated into two rhetorical sections (although some scholars believe it could be divided into three), based on theme, syntax and pacing, the first being lines one to four and the second being lines five to nine.[7]: §3 In the assessment of Daniel O'Donnell, 'stylistically,Cædmon's Hymn is probably most remarkable for its heavy use of ornamental poetic variation, particularly in the poem's last five lines'.[7]: §3.16
There has been much scholarly debate and speculation as to whether or not there existed pre-Cædmonian Christian composers by whom Cædmon may have been influenced, but the mainstream opinion appears to be that it is "reasonably clear that Cædmon coined the Christian poetic formulas that we find in the Hymn". Cædmon's work "had a newness that it lost in the course of time", but it has been asserted by many that his poetic innovations "entitle him to be reckoned a genius";inasmuch as the content of the hymn might strike us as conventional or "banal", according to Malone (1961), "we are led astray by our knowledge of later poetry".[24]
Caedmon's Hymn public domain audiobook atLibriVox