A BRIEF NOTE ON CAEDMON, THE FIRST ANGLO-SAXON POET

Caedmon, the first Anglo-Saxon poet, reading

                                 

The carved figure of the poet on Caedmon's Cross at Whitby

                                                   (Caedmon's Hymn in Northumbrian dialect)

                         

England was invaded by Germanic tribes like Jutes, Angles and 

Saxons in fifth century and their rule continued up to 1066 A.D.

 when the Normans invaded England and defeated them. This

 period is called Anglo-Saxon or Old English period. These 

Germanic tribes spoke different dialects such as Northumbrian,

 Mercian, West Saxon and Kentish. In the medieval sources the

 names of twelve Anglo-Saxon poets were mentioned. Most of

 their poetry survived through oral tradition and so no evidence

 is available except that of four poets namely Caedmon, Bede,

 Alfred and Cynewulf. Their poems and works are seen in four

 types of manuscripts seen in different places. The Junius

 manuscript was probably written at Malmesbury at Christ Church, 

Canterbury and is now kept in the Bodelian Library, Oxford. It is an 

illustrated poetic anthology containing many religious poems. The 

second collection is available at Exeter cathedral and this 

anthology was donated to this cathedral by Leofric, the first Bishop

 of Exeter in 1071. This is the largest collection of Old English

 literature containing nearly 131 leaves out of which the first eight

 original leaves were lost and had been replaced with other leaves.

 It is a mix of prose and poetry. 


The third collection called “The Vercelli Book” is housed in

 Vercelli in Northern Italy. It contains six verse texts and twenty

 three prose homilies. The fourth collection is called “Nowell

 Codex”. It had two books bound together in one volume. It

 contains the unique copy of the epic poem “Beowulf”. It

 (the second older manuscript) was first acquired by

 the antiquarian, Laurence Nowell in mid-sixteenth century.

 Later it was combined with the first manuscript. It was

 acquired by Sir Robert Cotton and kept on the first shelf that

 had a bust of the Emperor Vitellius giving the collection its

 name as Cotton Vitellius Collection. In this collection also there

 is a mix of prose and poems. This collection is now located in 

the British Library along with the rest of the Cotton collection.

 Caedmon is the first and earliest poet of the Anglo-Saxon

 literature. Though he wrote many poems, only one poem called 

“Caedmon’s Hymn” (nine lines with four stresses and medial

 caesura) in manuscript is left and is considered as the oldest

 recorded poem. This is the oldest example of the Germanic

alliterative verse. According to Bede’s “Ecclesiastical History

 of the English people” ( Historia Eccelesiastica gentis Anglorum)

 written in Latin (731 A.D.),  Caedmon was an illiterate layman

 employed in Monastery at Whitby in North Yorkshire to take care

 of cattle and other animals. During a feast he was asked to sing 

but he left the place with a sense of shame as he was an illiterate

 person and did not know how to sing. He went to the cattle shed 

and fell asleep. He saw the vision of a stranger asking him to sing

 about creation. In the dream he sang praising the creator of 

heaven and earth. The next morning he remembered everything

 he had sung and added additional lines to his poem. When the

 Abbess, Hilda, and her counselors heard his poem, they realized 

that it was a gift from God. He was invited to take monastic

 vows. The Abbess asked her scholars to teach Caedmon the

 sacred history and Christian doctrine. 


According to Bede Caedmon wrote poetic texts on a variety of 

Christian topics such as Creation of the world, Origin of Man,

 departure of the children of Israel from Egypt to the Land of

 Promise, Incarnation of the Son of God, Passion, Resurrection

 and Ascension of Lord, passion,  Coming of Holy Ghost, Preaching

 of Apostles, Future judgment, pains of Hell and delights of

 Heaven.

  The name of the poet suggests that he was of Celtic race though

 he used Northumbrian dialect in his poems which were generally

 sung to the accompaniment of harp. The manuscript of Caedmon’s

 Hymn” in Bede’s Monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow was partly 

damaged in a terrible fire in 1731. Luckily before this accident

 someone made a copy of it which is now seen in British Library

 Add Ms. 43703.

 The earliest surviving copies of  “Caedmon’s Hymn” are found

 in “The Moore Bede” in Cambridge University (Kk.5.16 often 

referred to as M) and in National Library of Russia,lat.Q.v.l.18(p).

 in St.Petersburg.

According to Bede, many English writers of sacred verse imitated

 Caedmon but none equaled him in portraying the sincere feelings

 of devotion and the existing conditions of English life and society

 of those times. Caedmon became a monk at an advanced age and

 died peacefully after a long and pious life. The year of his death

 is either 679 or according to Bede after 681 A.D. He lived at least

 in part during Hilda’s abbacy (657-680). The monastery at Whitby

was founded by St.Hilda in 657 A.D. It was attacked during Vikings

 (tribes from Norway, Sweden and Denmark) in 867 and was 

abandoned. In 1078 it was re-built and flourished till 1540 when

 it was destroyed by Henry VIII.

Many scholars translated the Bede’s Latin version of Caedmon into

 Old English. These are called glosses. These translators (glossators)

 tried to recover some of the beauty and originality of Caedmon’s

 poems. Nearly nineteen scripts of these glosses exist today.

In 1651 the Archbishop of Ussher presented a unique manuscript

 of Anglo-Saxon poems dating from 1000 A.D. to the Dutch scholar

 Francis Junius, who was serving as librarian to the Earl of Arundel.

 Junius studied them with attention and found that the poems

 in the manuscript tallied with Bede’s description of Caedmon’s 

work very well. Junius after returning to Holland published an

 edition of this manuscript which came to be known as “Caedmon 

Manuscript”. It is now in Bodelian library, Oxford, designated as 

Codex Junius 11. In this collection at least some of the poems

 might be the original work of Caedmon. To commemorate this

 earliest English (Northumbrian) poet, Caedmon's Cross carved

 from Northumbrian sandstone in a semi-Celtic style showing 

Christ, David, Abbess Hilda and the poet Caedmon on four panels

 was erected in his honor at the top of 199 steps in the grave yard

 of St.Mary's Churchyard, Whitby in 1898.


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           3rd September, 2019                             Somaseshu Gutala