The Story of Caedmon

The feasting was over, singing and merriment about to begin. As the monks tuned their lyres and harps, Caedmon felt ashamed that he didn't know the words to the songs that would be sung. As the instruments were passed, each man was expected to sing in turn. Before the harp came his way, the layman snuck away to find solace among his charges, the animals he cared for that belonged to the monastery. Full of good wine, cheeses and other delectable foods, he drifted off to sleep in the stable.

As he began to dream, a being appeared to Caedmon and asked him to sing of "the beginning of all created things." At first unwilling to sing in for the angel in his dream, he at last relented and composed a lyric praising God.

When he awoke, Caedmon remembered his dream and the words to the poem he had composed. He told his foreman of his dream, and the foreman took him at once to see the abbess of the monastery. After questioning and testing him, members of the religious order were soon convinced that Caedmon's dream was a vision and that his poem was a gift from God.

The abbess of the monastery ordered that Caedmon join the monastery as a monk and receive lessons in scripture, doctrine, and religious history. His divine gift allowed him to create beautiful and inspiring songs after each day's lesson. Unfortunately, only a few lines of his first poem are known, and rest of his work has been lost to history.

Caedmon's Hymn (modern-day translation)
"Now we must honour
the guardian of heaven,
the might of the architect,
and his purpose,
the work of the father of glory
-as he, the eternal lord,
established
the beginning of wonders.
He, the holy creator,
first created heaven as a roof
for the children of mankind.
Then the guardian of mankind,
the eternal lord,
the lord almighty
afterwards appointed
the middle earth,
the lands, for men......"

Caedmon lived during the 7^th Century and is one of earliest recorded English poets. He served as a herdsman for what is now known as Whitby Abbey, located on the coast of northern England. Although Caedmon had lived a secular life until an advanced age, he became a pious monk who used his Gift to bring glory to God with inspiring words that were unmatched by his contemporaries.