Cædmon's Hymn is a short Old English poem attributed to Cædmon, a supposedly illiterate and unmusical cow-herder who was, according to the Northumbrian monk Bede (d. 735), miraculously empowered to sing in honour of God the Creator. The poem is Cædmon's only surviving composition.
The poem has a claim to being the oldest surviving English poem: if Bede's account is correct, the poem was composed between 658 and 680, in the early stages of the Christianization of Anglo-Saxon England. Even on the basis of the surviving manuscripts, the poem is the earliest securely dateable example of Old English verse.
Correspondingly, it is one of the oldest surviving samples of Germanic alliterative verse, constituting a prominent landmark for the study of Old English literature and for the early use of traditional poetic form for Christian themes following the conversion of early medieval England to Christianity. One scholar has argued that Bede perceived it as a continuation of Germanic praise poetry, which led him to include a Latin translation but not the original poem.
The poem is also the Old English poem attested in the second largest number of known manuscripts — twenty-three — after Bede's Death Song. These are all manuscripts of Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People. These manuscripts show significant variation in the form of the text, making it an important case-study for the scribal transmission of Old English verse.Daniel Paul O'Donnell, 'Different Strokes, Same Folk: Designing the Multi-Form Digital Edition', Literature Compass 7.2 (2010), 110–119 (p. 112), .
Text and translation Cædmon's Hymn survives in Old English in twenty-two manuscripts, plus photographs of one destroyed in 1940, originally as marginal annotations to Bede's Latin account of the poem. Some of these manuscripts reflect the Northumbrian dialect of Bede and putatively of Cædmon, and some reflect the transfer of the poem into the West Saxon dialect. Whether due to change in oral tradition or scribal transmission, the text varies in different manuscripts. There is some debate as to the best translation of some of these variants..Alfred Bammesberger, 'Discrepancies between Cædmon's Hymn and its Latin Rendering by Bede', in Anglo-Saxon Micro-Texts, ed. by Ursula Lenker and Lucia Kornexl, Buchreihe der Anglia / Anglia Book Series, 67 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2019), pp. 329-46; .
The following Old English text is a normalized reading of the oldest or second-oldest manuscript of the poem, the mid-eighth-century Northumbrian Moore Bede (Cambridge, University Library, MS Kk. 5. 16). The translation notes key points of debate as to meaning, and variation in other manuscripts.
Although the different Old English versions do not diverge from one another enormously, they vary enough that researchers have been able to reconstruct five substantively different variants of the poem, witnessed by different groups of the twenty-three manuscripts. The following list links to critical editions of each by Daniel O'Donnell:
A Northumbrian recension characterised by the word aelda in line 5b. A Northumbrian recension characterised by the word eordu in line 5b. (O'Donnell's edition of this recension has been superseded by Magnanti and Faulkner's.) A West-Saxon recension characterised by the word ylda in line 5b (which accounts for all the texts of the Old English translation of the Historia ecclesiastica). A West-Saxon recension characterised by the word eorðan in line 5b. A late, West-Saxon recension characterised by the word eorðe in line 5b and extensive textual corruption.
One example of an attempted literary translation of Cædmon's Hymn (in this case of the eorðan recension) is Harvey Shapiro's 2011 rendering:'Cædmon's Hymn', trans. by Harvey Shapiro, in The Word Exchange: Anglo-Saxon Poems in Translation, ed. by Greg Delanty and Michael Matto (New York: Norton, 2011), p. 421.
Guardian of heaven whom we come to praise who mapped creation in His thought's sinews Glory-Father who worked out each wonder began with broad earth a gift for His children first roofed it with heaven the Holy Shaper established it forever as in the beginning called it middle kingdom fenced it with angels created a habitation for man to praise His splendor
Origins Bede's story Cædmon's Hymn survives only in manuscripts of Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, which recounts the poem as part of an elaborate miracle-story. Bede's chronology suggests that these events took place under the abbacy of Hilda of Whitby (658–80), or in the decade after her death.Dennis Cronan, 'Cædmon's Hymn: Context and Dating', English Studies, 91 (2010), 817-25; . Whether Bede had this story directly from oral sources or whether he had access to a written account is a matter of debate,Paul Cavill, 'Bede and Cædmon's Hymn', in Lastworda Betst': Essays in Memory of Christine E. Fell with her Unpublished Writings, ed. by Carole Hough and Kathryn A. Lowe (Donington: Tyas, 2002), pp. 1–17. but although world literature attests to many stories of poetic inspiration that recall Bede's, none is similar enough to be a likely source.John D. Niles, 'Bede's Cædmon, "The Man Who Had No Story" (Irish Tale-Type 2412B)', Folklore, 117 (2006), 141–55 .Dennis Cronan, 'Cædmon and Hesiod', English Studies, 87 (2006), 379-401, .
According to Bede, Cædmon was an illiterate cow-herder employed at the monastery of Whitby who miraculously recited a Christian song of praise in Old English verse. In the story, Cædmon is attending a feast. When the revellers pass a harp around for all to sing a song, he leaves the hall, because he cannot contribute a song and feels ashamed. He falls asleep, and in a dream a man appears to him, and asks him to sing a song. Cædmon responds that he cannot sing, yet the man tells him to "Sing to me the beginning of all things".
Cædmon is then able to sing verses and words that he had not heard of before. On waking, Cædmon reported his experience first to a steward, then to St Hilda, the abbess of Whitby. She invites scholars to evaluate Cædmon's gift, and he is tasked with turning more divine doctrine into song. Hilda is so impressed with Cædmon's poetic gift that she encourages him to become a monk.
He learns the history of the Christian church and creates more poems, such as the story of Genesis and many other biblical stories. This impresses his teachers. Bede says that Cædmon, in composing verse, wanted to turn man from the 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.
The following Latin text is the prose paraphrase of Cædmon's poem which Bede presents in his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum; Bede did not give the text in Old English:
Scholarly debate Many scholars have more or less accepted Bede's story, supposing that Cædmon existed and did compose Cædmon's Hymn. They infer that Cædmon's poem then circulated in oral tradition, that Bede knew it as an oral poem, and that his Latin paraphrase of the poem was a close rendering of this text. They then infer that other members of Bede's community also knew this orally transmitted Old English poem by heart, and that the text added into the margins of manuscripts of his Historia ecclesiastica shortly after his death is essentially the same poem that Cædmon composed and Bede knew.Dennis Cronan, 'Cædmon's Audience', Studies in Philology, 109 (2012), 333-63. .
It is also possible that although the Old English poem was in oral tradition prior to Bede, the story of its composition is a fabrication.
Meanwhile, the content of Bede's Latin paraphrase is somewhat different from all the surviving Old English texts. Scholars have debated why this might be. Most scholars think that Bede was translating from a probably oral version of the Old English poem like one of the surviving versions, but doing so loosely. The earliest Old English version of the Hymn might have been the one that is most similar to Bede's text, in which case other Old English versions diverged from it in oral or scribal transmission. On the other hand, the earliest version might have been the one that is least similar to Bede's text, and Old English versions that are more similar to Bede's text might have been adapted by scribes to make them more similar to Bede's Latin.
Some have even argued that the Old English text does not predate Bede's Latin at all, but originated as a somewhat loose verse translation of Bede's Latin text.Cædmon's Hymn: A Multimedia Study, Edition and Archive. 1.1, ed. by Daniel Paul O'Donnell, SEENET Series A — Editions, 8 (Charlottesville, Virginia: SEENET, 2018) [first published as ].
Manuscripts
All copies of the Cædmon's Hymn are found in manuscripts of Bede's Latin Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum or the Old English translation of that text. Twenty-three manuscripts of the Old English poem, dating from the eighth century to the sixteenth, are known to have existed.Paul Cavill, 'The Manuscripts of Cædmon's Hymn', Anglia: Zeitschrift für englische Philologie, 118 (2000), 499-530.
List of manuscripts This list is based on the survey by Paul Cavill. Hyperlinks to O'Donnell's descriptions of each manuscript are provided from the shelf-marks, and to his facsimiles and transcriptions from folio numbers. +SiglumShelf-markOriginVersion of BedeDialect of HymnFolionotesMKk. 5. 16, Cambridge, University Library (the Moore Bede)734 x 737LatinNorthumbrian128vLlat. Q. v. I. 18, St. Petersburg, Saltykov-Schedrin Public Library (the Saint Petersburg Bede)first half of eighth centuryLatinNorthumbrian107rTr1R. 5. 22, Cambridge, Trinity CollegeFourteenth-centuryLatinWest Saxon32vBdBodley 163, Oxford, Bodleian LibraryMid-eleventh-centuryLatinWest Saxon152vA corrector's attempt to remove the poem from the text has made it largely illegible.HHatton 43, Oxford, Bodleian LibraryMid-eleventh-centuryLatinWest Saxon129rLnLat. 31, Oxford, Lincoln CollegeMid-twelfth-centuryLatinWest Saxon83rMgLat. 105, Oxford, Magdalen CollegeMid-twelfth-centuryLatinWest Saxon99rWI, Winchester, CathedralMid-eleventh-centuryLatinWest Saxon81rT1Tanner 10, Oxford, Bodleian Library (the Tanner Bede)First half of tenth centuryOld EnglishWest Saxon100rCCotton Otho B. xi, London, British LibraryMid-tenth to early eleventh-centuryOld EnglishWest SaxonThe section containing Cædmon's Hymn was destroyed in the 1731 Cottonian fire.NAdditional 43703, London, British LibrarySixteenth-centuryOld EnglishWest Saxonpp. 25-25Transcription of Otho B. xi by Laurence Nowell, predating the loss of Cædmon's Hymn.O279, Oxford, Corpus Christi CollegeEarly eleventh-centuryOld EnglishWest Saxonpart ii, f. 112vCaKk. 3. 18, Cambridge, University LibrarySecond quarter of eleventh centuryOld EnglishWest Saxon72vB141, Cambridge, Corpus Christi CollegeFirst quarter of eleventh centuryOld EnglishWest Saxonp. 322Ld1Laud Misc. 243, Oxford, Bodleian LibraryFirst quarter of twelfth centuryOld EnglishWest Saxon82vHrP. 5.i, Hereford, Cathedral LibraryFirst quarter of twelfth centuryOld EnglishWest Saxon116vDi547 , Dijon, Bibliothèque PubliqueTwelfth-centuryLatinNorthumbrian59vP1Lat 5237, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationalec. 1430LatinNorthumbrian72vBr8245-57, Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale1489LatinNorthumbrian62r-vLCAM.6, London, College of ArmsTwelfth-centuryLatinWest Saxon86vSMHM. 35300, San Marino CA, Huntington LibraryMid-fifteenth-centuryLatinWest Saxon82rTo134, Tournai, Bibliothèque de la VilleTwelfth-centuryLatinWest Saxon78vDestroyed in 1940, but survives in facsimileRmRome, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Vitt. Em. 1452800 x 830LatinNorthumbrian122vDiscovered in 2026 by Drs Elisabetta Magnanti and Mark Faulkner from Trinity College Dublin at the National Central Library of Rome
Scribal transmission