Caedmon

Caedmon is traditionally known as 'the Father of English Verse'. He is one of very few poets from the Early English period known by name. His story appears in Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum ('Ecclesiastical History of the English People') (731), book 4, chapter 24, which tells of an illiterate herdsman at Whitby Abbey in the seventh century. Caedmon dreamt one night that he was told to sing of God's creation of the Earth, and when he woke he had a miraculous gift of song and composition. Bede quotes one fragment of a poem known as 'Caedmon's Hymn'. His text is Latin (he says translation of poems is impossible "without detriment to their beauty or dignity"); but there are translations in no fewer than 17 copies, mostly in the margins of copies of Bede. Two are given here, one the wikipedia version of the 'Earliest text' of Caedmon's Hymn (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=C%C3%A6dmon&oldid=437863240), which is taken from Richard Marsden, The Cambridge Old English Reader (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), p. 80, collated with manuscript facsimile: this is in the Northumbrian dialect spoken around Whitby. The other text is in the West Saxon dialect, and has been copied from Kastan, 2006. For reasons of space - and to show something of how Old English alliterative verse works - these are given in 18 half-lines, rather than the 9 lines that are all that survive of Caedmon's work. Those who read Latin may like to see Bede's text as well: it is in the fourth column, past a modern version. It only has 15 lines, so the text does not match the English line-for-line.

Early English texts Northumbrian	Early English texts West Saxon	Modern version	Bede's Latin text	Notes
nu scylun hergan	Nu sculon herigean	Now we must praise	Nunc laudare debemus
hefaenricaes uard	heofonrices Weard	heaven-kingdom's Guardian,	auctorem regni caelestis,
metudæs maecti	Meotodes meahte	the Creator's might	potentiam creatoris
end his modgidanc	ond his modgeanc,	and his mind's thought -	et consilium illius
uerc uuldurfadur	Weorc Wuldorfæder,	the work of the Glory-Father	facta Patris gloriae
swe he uundra gihwaes	swa he wundra gehwæs,	as He, at the start,	quomodo ille,	Bede says how He
eci dryctin	Ece Drihten,	(the eternal Lord)	cum sit aeternus Deus	Bede reads since he is eternal god..
or astelidæ	or onstealde.	set up wonders.	omnium miraculorum auctor exstitit	Bede, lit: He stood out as the author of all miracles
he ærist scop	He ærest sceop	First He shaped	qui primo	Bede: who first
aelda barnum	eorðan bearnum	for earth's children	filiis hominum	Bede: for the sons of men
heben til hrofe	heofon to hrofe,	Heaven for a roof	caelum pro culmine tecti
haleg scepen.	halig Scyppend;	(the holy Shaper)
θa middungeard	a middangeard	then Middle-yard	dehinc terram	and then the earth
moncynnæs uard	moncynnes Weard,	(mankind's Guardian)	custos humani generis
eci dryctin	ece Drihten,	(the eternal lord)	omnipotens	Bede: omnipotent
æfter tiadæ	æfter teode,	afterwards
firum foldu	firum foldan,	folded the solid land	creavit.	Bede: created
frea allmectig	Frea ælmihtig.	for free men (the Almighty).