Cædmon's Hymn - Wikipedia Cædmon's Hymn From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Cædmon's Hymn" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (March 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Cædmon's "Hymn" is a short Old English poem originally composed by Cædmon, a supposedly illiterate cow-herder who was, according to Bede, able to sing in honour of God the Creator, using words that he had never heard before. It was composed between 658 and 680 and is the oldest recorded Old English poem, being composed within living memory of the Christianization of Anglo-Saxon England. It is also one of the oldest surviving samples of Germanic alliterative verse. The "Hymn" is Cædmon's sole surviving composition. It was designed to be sung from memory and was later preserved in written form by others, surviving today in at least 19 verified manuscript copies. The poem has passed down from a Latin translation by Bede in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People. It forms a prominent landmark and reference point for the study of Old English prosody, for the early influence which Christianity had on the poems and songs of the Anglo-Saxon people after their conversion. Contents 1 History 2 Manuscript witnesses 3 Manuscript evidence 4 Text and translation 5 Form and role in Old English prosody 6 Originality and significance 7 Online Editions 8 Appearances in popular culture 9 Notes 10 References 10.1 Citations 10.2 Sources 10.3 Further reading 11 External links History[edit] Bede (Bædæ - as written on his tomb stone[1]) wrote about the poet and his work in his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, book 4, chapter 24. According to Bede, Cædmon was an illiterate cow-herder "who was actually employed by the monastery of Whitby"[2] and who miraculously was able to recite a Christian song of creation in Old English verse. This miracle happened after Cædmon left a feast when they were passing a harp around for all to sing a song. He left the hall after feeling ashamed that he could not contribute a song. Later in a dream he said a man appeared to him and asked him to sing a song. Cædmon responded that he could not sing, yet the man told him that he could and asked him to "Sing to me the beginning of all things." Cædmon was then able to sing verses and words that he had not heard of before. Cædmon then reported his experience first to a steward then to Hild, the abbess of Whitby. She invited scholars to evaluate Cædmon’s gift, and he was sent home to turn more divine doctrine into song. The abbess was so impressed with the success of his gift that she encouraged him to become a monk. He learned the history of the Christian church and created more music like the story of Genesis and many biblical stories which impressed his teachers. Bede says that Cædmon in his creation of his songs wanted to turn man from love of sin to a love of good deeds. Cædmon is said to have died peacefully in his sleep after asking for the Eucharist and making sure he was at peace with his fellow men.[3] Like many Old English and Anglo-Latin pieces, it was designed to be sung aloud and was never physically recorded by Cædmon himself, but was written and preserved by other literate individuals. The Hymn itself was composed between 658 and 680, recorded in the earlier part of the 8th century, and survives today in at least 19 verified manuscript copies.[4] The Hymn is Cædmon's sole surviving composition. The poem forms a prominent landmark and reference point for the study of Old English prosody, for the early influence which Christianity had on the poems and songs of the Anglo-Saxon people after their conversion. Cædmon's Hymn is the oldest recorded Old English poem,[5] and also one of the oldest surviving samples of Germanic alliterative verse.[citation needed] Within Old English, only the inscriptions upon the Ruthwell Cross (doubtful) or Franks Casket (early 8th century) may be of comparable age. Outside of Old English, there are a few alliterative lines preserved in epigraphy (Horns of Gallehus, Pforzen buckle) which have a claim to greater age. Manuscript witnesses[edit] Cædmon's Hymn is known to have been copied in twenty one medieval manuscripts of Bede's Latin Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum or its Old English translation.[6] Nineteen of these texts exist in their original state today. MS 134, Tournai, Bibliothèque de la Ville was destroyed during World War II. The section containing Cædmon's Hymn in MS Cotton Otho B. xi, London, British Museum was destroyed in the 1731 Cottonian fire. However, the bare text survives through transcription (MS Additional 43703, London, British Library) made by Laurence Nowell in the 16th century.[7] Even though MS Bodley 163, Oxford, Bodleian Library survives today, a corrector's attempt to remove the poem from the text has made it largely illegible.[7] MS 8245-57, Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale MS 41, Cambridge, Corpus Christi College MS R. 5. 22, Cambridge, Trinity College MS Kk. 3. 18, Cambridge, University Library MS Kk. 5. 16, Cambridge, University Library ("The Moore Bede") MS 547 [334], Dijon, Bibliothèque Municipale MS P. 5.i, Hereford, Cathedral Library MS Additional 43703, London, British Library MS Cotton Otho B. xi, London, British Museum MS s.n, London, College of Arms MS Bodley 163, Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Hatton 43, Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Laud Misc. 243, Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Tanner 10, Oxford, Bodleian Library ("The Tanner Bede") MS 279, Oxford, Corpus Christi College MS Lat. 31, Oxford, Lincoln College MS Lat. 105, Oxford, Magdalen College MS Lat 5237, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale MS Q. v. I. 18, St. Petersburg, National Library of Russia ("The Leningrad Bede") MS HM. 35300, San Marino CA, Huntington Library MS 134, Tournai, Bibliothèque de la Ville MS I, Winchester, Cathedral[4] Manuscript evidence[edit] One of two candidates for the earliest surviving copy of Cædmon's Hymn is found in "The Moore Bede" (ca. 737) which is held by the Cambridge University Library (Kk. 5. 16, often referred to as M). The other candidate is St. Petersburg, National Library of Russia, lat. Q. v. I. 18 (P) All copies of the Hymn are found in manuscripts of the Historia ecclesiastica or its Old English translation, where they serve as either a gloss to Bede's Latin translation of the Old English poem, or, in the case of the Old English version, a replacement for Bede's translation in the main text of the Historia. Despite this close connection with Bede's work, the Hymn does not appear to have been transmitted with the Historia ecclesiastica regularly until relatively late in its textual history. Scribes other than those responsible for the main text often copy the vernacular text of the Hymn in manuscripts of the Latin Historia. In three cases — Oxford, Bodleian Library, Laud Misc. 243; Oxford, Bodleian Library, Hatton 43; and Winchester, Cathedral I — the poem is copied by scribes working a quarter-century or more after the main text was first set down.[8][9] 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 Latin Historia: 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 Latin Historia sometimes contain very different versions of the Old English poem. With the exception of the Old English translation, no single recension of the Historia ecclesiastica is characterised by the presence of a particular recension of the vernacular poem.[a] Text and translation[edit] The manuscripts containing Cædmon's Hymn began to emerge in the eighth century, continuing through the twelfth. They show two separate manuscript environments, and the transformation of the hymn as it goes from an oral tradition to a literate one. In the West Saxon translation of the Historia ecclesiastica, the Hymn is made a part of the main text. However, in the Latin translation, the hymn appears only as a gloss to the paraphrase of the song. Between the fourteen manuscripts, the hymn only appears in two dialects. The importance of the two translations is that it shows the formatting practices of Latin and Old English during those five centuries. The word division, capitalization, punctuation, as well as where the text is found on the page all help to give fuller understanding to the Old English language which at the time was new to writing, as well as to its Latin counterpart, considered a textual language.[10] The 8th-century Latin manuscripts of Historia ecclesiastica contain pronounced visual cues to help with the proper reading of the hymn. This is done by capitalization and by placing the text in two distinct columns. In later editions of Historia the hymn is laid out with each verse's first capital written in red, and the end of each verse written in a lighter color. The lighter ink expresses a caesura in the text while the darker ink shows a terminal punctuation. Despite the differences in the Hymn found in the Old English manuscripts, each copy of the hymn is metrically, semantically, and syntactically correct. These manuscripts bear testament of a supposed transitional period where oral poems were being placed into written word with the specific purpose of giving a predetermined message to its reader.[11] The following Old English text is a normalized reading of manuscript M, the Moore Bede (Cambridge, University Library, MS Kk. 5. 16). This mid-8th century Northumbrian text is one of the oldest extant copies of the text. Old English Nū scylun hergan     hefaenrīcaes Uard, metudæs maecti     end his mōdgidanc, uerc Uuldurfadur,     suē hē uundra gihwaes, ēci dryctin     ōr āstelidæ hē ǣrist scōp     aelda barnum heben til hrōfe,     hāleg scepen. Thā middungeard     moncynnæs Uard, eci Dryctin,     æfter tīadæ firum foldu,     Frēa allmectig.[12] Latin (Bede) 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. Modern English translation Now [we] must honour the guardian of heaven, the might of the architect, and his purpose, the work of the father of glory[b] as he, the eternal lord, established the beginning of wonders; he first created for the children of men[c] heaven as a roof, the holy creator Then the guardian of mankind, the eternal lord, afterwards appointed the middle earth, the lands for men,[d] the Lord almighty. Form and role in Old English prosody[edit] Cædmon's Hymn was intended as an oral piece to be sung aloud. It is still not a hymn in the narrow sense of the formal and structural criteria of hymnody. It is, instead, a piece of Germanic alliterative poetry composed within living memory of the Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon England. Although the suprasegmentals in the hymn's original form seem to show that when it was constructed it would have been regarded as a true hymn,[clarification needed] it has been primarily considered by scholars since the 16th century as a poem. Nearly all Old English poetry (whether or not it was written or sung) follows the same general verse form, its chief characteristic being alliteration. As was common with poetry of the period, the nine lines of the Hymn are divided into eighteen half-lines by a medial caesura (pause or break in the middle of the line); the four principal stresses of each line are in turn divided evenly, allotting each half line with two stresses.[14] 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.[15] Bede himself stated (in regards to his own Latin translation of Cædmon's Hymn) that "it is impossible to make a literal translation, no matter how well written, of poetry into another language without losing some of the beauty and dignity"[14] of the piece. In seeking to understand the mechanics of the oral Old English verse, practitioners of oral-formulaic analysis have tried to duplicate the supposed creating process of Anglo-Saxon poets. They posit that Old English poetry does indeed have a traditional formulaic style, and that this explains phrasal resemblances between various Anglo-Saxon poems; especially the work of Francis Magoun was highly influential, though his conclusions were doubted within a decade after his seminal publications on the subject, ("The Oral- Formulaic Character of Anglo-Saxon Poetry", 1953, and "Bede's Story of Caedmon: The Case History of an Anglo-Saxon Oral Singer", 1955)[16] and "the presence of formulae in verse (a critical element in defining oral character) is ambiguous evidence at best".[17] The poetry of this period was the result of a transitional time in literature, where oral poems and songs were being translated and modified for the purpose of reading.[clarification needed] This process would have been more than likely done by English monks and clergymen, who not only were educated in Christian Latin literature but were familiar with oral traditions and translating them into written poetry.[18] Originality and significance[edit] Cædmon utilised a form of Anglo-Saxon poetry traditionally used for the veneration of kings and princes, and altered the conventions in a way that would cause it to refer to God instead of a monarch. For instance, the phrase rices weard (keeper of the kingdom) was changed to heofonrices weard (keeper of the kingdom of heaven). 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".[19] Online Editions[edit] Daniel O'Donnell's 2005 CD-ROM edition, Cædmon’s Hymn: A multimedia study, edition and archive (SEENET / Boydell & Brewer: 2005) is now available in an online archive as well: https://caedmon.seenet.org In 2019, Martin Foys used the Digital Mappa 2.0 platform to produce an open access scholarly edition of seven manuscript witnesses for the West Saxon text of the poem: Cædmon's Hymn: the West Saxon Versions (The Center for the History of Print and Digital Culture, University of Wisconsin-Madison: 2019): https://uw.digitalmappa.org/12 Appearances in popular culture[edit] Caedmon's Song, a novel by Peter Robinson. Caedmon's Call, a Houston, TX, based Christian band, is named for Caedmon. Notes[edit] ^ Compare the recensional identifications for witnesses to the Old English Hymn in Dobbie 1937 with those for manuscripts of the Latin Historia in Bede 1969, pp. xxxix–lxx harvnb error: no target: CITEREFBede1969 (help). ^ This is the traditional translation of these lines, in agreement with Bede's Latin version. An alternative translation of the eorðan and aelda texts, however, understands weorc as the subject: "Now the works of the father of glory must honour the guardian of heaven, the might of the architect, and his mind's purpose".[13] ^ This is the reading of the West-Saxon ylda and Northumbrian aelda recensions. The West-Saxon eorðan, Northumbrian eordu, and with some corruption, the West-Saxon eorðe recensions would be translated "for the children of earth". ^ The Northumbrian eordu and West-Saxon ylda and eorðe recensions would be translated "for men among the lands" at this point. References[edit] Citations[edit] ^ "The tomb of Bede". Retrieved 22 March 2019. ^ Abrams 1986, p. 29. ^ Bede 1969, Book 4, ch. 22. sfn error: no target: CITEREFBede1969 (help) ^ a b O'Donnell 2005, p. vi. ^ O'Keeffe 1987, p. 222. ^ O'Donnell 2005, p. 78. ^ a b O'Donnell 2005, pp. 81-82. ^ Ker 1957, pp. 341, 326, 396. ^ O'Keeffe 1987, p. 36. ^ O'Keeffe 1987, p. 226. ^ O'Keeffe 1987, p. 244. ^ Marsden 2004, p. 80. ^ Mitchell 1985, pp. 190-197. ^ a b Abrams 1986, pp. 19–20. ^ O'Donnell 2004, pp. 417-432. ^ Stevick 1962, pp. 382-384. ^ O'Keeffe 1987, p. 2. ^ Stevick 1962, p. 383. ^ Malone 1961, p. 194. Sources[edit] Abrams, Meyer Howard, ed. (1986). The Norton Anthology of English Literature. W.W. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-91249-4. Bede, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, ed. and tr. Colgrave, Bertram; Mynors, Roger AB (1969). Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Oxford Medieval Texts. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-822202-5. Dobbie, Elliot Van Kirk (1937). The manuscripts of Cædmon's Hymn and Bede's Death Song with a critical text of the Epistola Cuthberti de obitu Bedae. Columbia University Studies in English and Comparative Literature. New York: Columbia. Ker, Neil Ripley (1957). Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Malone, Kemp (1961). "Cædmon and English Poetry". Modern Language Notes. 76 (3): 193–95. doi:10.2307/3039872. JSTOR 3039872. Marsden, Richard (April 2004). The Cambridge Old English Reader. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-45612-8. Mitchell, Bruce (1985). "Cædmon's Hymn, Line 1: What Is the Subject of Scylun or Its Variants?". Studies in English. University of Leeds. Retrieved 2 September 2020. O'Donnell, Daniel P. (October 2004). "Bede's Strategy in Paraphrasing Caedmon's Hymn". Journal of English and Germanic Philology. 103 (4). JSTOR 27712457. O'Donnell, Daniel P. (2005). Cædmon's Hymn: A Multimedia Study, Edition and Archive. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer/SEENET/Medieval Academy. ISBN 978-1-84384-044-2. O'Keeffe, Katherine O'Brien (January 1987). "Orality and the Developing Text of Caedmon's Hymn". Speculum. 62 (1): 1–20. doi:10.2307/2852564. JSTOR 2852564. S2CID 161081164. Richards, Mary P., ed. (1994). Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: Basic Readings. New York: Routledge. ISBN 9780815335672. Smith, A.H., ed. (1978). Three Northumbrian Poems: Cædmon's Hymn, Bede's Death Song and the Leiden Riddle. With a bibliography compiled by M.J. Swanton (revised ed.). London: University of Exeter. ISBN 9780859890786. Stevick, Robert D. (July 1962). "The Oral-Formulaic Analyses of Old English Verse". Speculum. 37 (3): 382–389. doi:10.2307/2852359. JSTOR 2852359. S2CID 162509556. Further reading[edit] Altman, Rochelle (2008). "Hymnody, Graphotactics, and 'Cædmon's Hymn'". Philological Review. 34 (2): 1–27. Bammesberger, Alfred (2008). "Nu Scylun Hergan (Caedmon's Hymn, 1a)". ANQ. 21 (4): 2–6. doi:10.3200/anqq.21.4.2-6. S2CID 161640238. Blair, Peter Hunter (1994). "Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation and its Importance Today". Bede and His World The Jarrow Lectures 1958–1978. Great Britain: Variorum. pp. 21–33. DeGregorio, Scott (2007). "Literary Contexts: Cædmon's Hymn as a Center of Bedes World". In Frantzer, Allen J; Hines, John (eds.). Cædmon's Hymn and Material Culture in the World of Bede Six Essays. Morganstown: West Virginia University Press. pp. 51–79. Frantzen, Allen J.; Hines, John, eds. (2007). Cædmon's Hymn and Material Culture in the World of Bede Six Essays. Morganstown: West Virginia University Press. ISBN 9781933202228. Fry, Donald K. (1974). "Cædmon as a Formulaic Poet". Forum for Modern Language Studies. 10 (3): 227–47. doi:10.1093/fmls/X.3.227. Also published as: Fry, D.K. (1975). "Cædmon as a Formulaic Poet". In Duggan, JJ (ed.). Oral Literature: Seven Essays. Edinburgh and New York. pp. 41–61. Hoover, David (1985). "Evidence for Primacy of Alliteration in Old English Metre."Anglo-Saxon England 14: p. 75-96. Kiernan, Kevin (2002). "Reading Cædmon's "Hymn" with Someone Else's Glosses." Old English Literature Critical Essays. Ed. Roy Liuzza. New Haven: Yale University Press, p. 103-24. O'Keeffe, Katherine O'Brien (1990). Visible Song: Transitional Literacy in Old English Verse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. O'Keeffe, Katherine O'Brien (1999). "Cædmon". In Lapidge, Michael; Blair, John; Keynes, Simon; Scragg, Donald (eds.). Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England. Molden, MA: Blackwell. p. 81. Magennis, Hugh (2011). The Cambridge Introduction to Anglo-Saxon Literature. New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–35. ISBN 9780521734653. External links[edit] The seven West Saxon versions of "Cædmon's Hymn" are edited, annotated and linked to digital images of their manuscript pages by Martin Foys: "Cædmon's Hymn": the Seven West Saxon Versions: https://uw.digitalmappa.org/12 Kiernan, Kevin S. "Reading Cædmon's 'Hymn' with Someone Else's Glosses". UKY. "Verse Translation of Caedmon's Hymn", Poems Found in Translation (World Wide Web log), Google Blogger, October 2010, also includes an audio recording Caedmon's Hymn public domain audiobook at LibriVox v t e Old English poetry Poems Nowell Codex Beowulf Judith Junius MS Genesis A, B Exodus Daniel Christ and Satan Vercelli Book Andreas "The Fates of the Apostles" "Soul and Body I" Dream of the Rood Elene "Homiletic Fragment I" Exeter Book "Christ I" "Christ II" "Christ III" "Guthlac A, B" "Azarias" "The Phoenix" "Juliana" "The Wanderer" "The Gifts of Men" "Precepts" "The Seafarer" "Vainglory" "Widsith" "The Fortunes of Men" "Maxims I" "The Order of the World" "The Rhyming Poem" "The Panther" "The Whale" "The Partridge" "Soul and Body II" "Deor" "Wulf and Eadwacer" Riddles 1–59 "The Wife's Lament" "The Judgment Day I" "Resignation" "The Descent into Hell" "Alms-Giving" "Pharaoh" "The Lord's Prayer I" "Homiletic Fragment II" Riddle 30b Riddle 60 "The Husband's Message" "The Ruin" Riddles 61–95 Metrical charms "Æcerbot" "Against a Dwarf" "Against a Wen" "A Journey Charm" "For a Swarm of Bees" "For Loss or Theft of Cattle" "For Delayed Birth" "For Water-Elf Disease" "Nine Herbs Charm" "Wið færstice" Chronicle poems "Battle of Brunanburh" "Capture of the Five Boroughs" "The Coronation of Edgar" "The Death of King Edgar" "The Death of Alfred" "The Death of Edward" "The Rime of King William" Other poems "Metres of Boethius" "Paris Psalter" (BNF MS 8824) "Finnsburh Fragment" "Waldere A, B" "The Battle of Maldon" "Durham" "Rune poem" Solomon and Saturn "The Menologium" "Maxims II" "Proverb from Winfrid's time" "Judgment Day II" "An Exhortation to Christian Living" "A Summons to Prayer" "The Lord's Prayer II" "The Gloria I" "The Lord's Prayer III" "The Creed" "Old English Psalms" (fragments) "The Kentish Hymn" "Psalm 50" "The Gloria II" "A Prayer" "Thureth" "Aldhelm" "The Seasons for Fasting" Cædmon's "Hymn" "Bede's Death Song" "Leiden Riddle" "Latin-English Proverbs" Metrical Preface and Epilogue to Alfred's Hierdeboc Metrical Preface to Wærferth's translation of the Dialogues Metrical Epilogue to CCCC MS 41 Brussels Cross Ruthwell Cross Poets Aldhelm Cædmon Cynewulf Other Alliterative verse Beasts of battle Kennings On Translating Beowulf Scop Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cædmon%27s_Hymn&oldid=1001968698" Categories: Old English poems 7th-century poems Hidden categories: Harv and Sfn no-target errors Articles containing Old English (ca. 450-1100)-language text Articles needing additional references from March 2014 All articles needing additional references Use dmy dates from August 2013 All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from March 2014 Wikipedia articles needing clarification from February 2012 Articles with LibriVox links Navigation menu Personal tools Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in Namespaces Article Talk Variants Views Read Edit View history More Search Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Donate Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Tools What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Cite this page Wikidata item Print/export Download as PDF Printable version In other projects Wikisource Languages فارسی Français Hrvatski Norsk nynorsk Русский Simple English Edit links This page was last edited on 22 January 2021, at 05:13 (UTC). 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