Caedmon

ked'mon, an English monk. He is one of the earliest English poets. The Abbey of Whitby stands on a cliff on the northeastern coast of England. It was founded by a colony of Irish monks. It was a center of learning and civilization, long before the commercial interests of England had decided upon London as a center of wealth. According to the tradition Caedmon was an ignorant cowherd in the service of the Abbey. He listened to the singing of the monks and to their playing on the harp with a sad heart, for he had not been educated. One night, as he lay with moist eye on his rude couch, the gift of poesy came to him. He began to sing of the creation of the world and the goodness of God to man. In the morning he told the steward of the gift that had come to him. The steward led him to the Abbess Hilda. The astonished monks considered that the hand of God had been laid upon him. They made him an honored member of their order. The date of his singing is not known, but he preceded the Venerable Bede. He died about 673. His versification was long considered lost, but in 1655 a tenth century manuscript was discovered accidentally. It contained the Paraphrase, a biblical history of the creation, the revolt, the fall, the flood, and the exodus. The people of the Paraphrase seem to stand half way between the Scandinavian gods and the Puritanic types of Milton's Paradise Lost. It is quite possible that Caedmon's Paraphrase may have suggested Milton's great work. Resemblances are quite remarkable. Milton appears to have begun his Paradise Lost in 1658, three years after the discovery of this manuscript.

The following translation gives some idea of Caedmon's style. The first selection is from the account of the creation. The second describes Pharaoh's death;

See Milton