5/30/2023 0 Comments Bede's account of the poet caedmon![]() ![]() ![]() Bede didn't get around much-in fact he spent his whole life in the combined monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow in northeastern England-but from these walls he churned out early medieval bestsellers in Latin like The Ecclesiastical History of the English People. We owe Caedmon's Hymn to one man: the Venerable Bede, an awesome dude with an even awesomer name, who wrote it downaround 731. ![]() Drop a tear, sweet readers, for the poetic bulk lost to the ages: for Caedmon's Song and Caedmon's Sonnet and Caedmon's Anglo-Saxon Gangsta Rap (j/k, the Anglo-Saxons didn't do rap). Only in special cases were these poems actually recorded. For the most part, Anglo-Saxon poetry (written in England between 5 C.E.) was oral, meaning that poets sang or recited it (harps optional) instead of writing it down or "publishing" it. The monastery that owned his cows invited him to become a monk as soon as they heard about the miracle.īut even though he spouted poetry pretty regularly after that, this Hymn is the only one that still exists. Pretty good for a night out on the medieval town, right? Unfortunately, as far as surviving works go, this was kind of a one-night stand for Caedmon. And that, folks, is the backstory to the first non-fragment poem in English. Wild night, eighth-century-style: a cowherd goes to a wedding, drinks mead, hits the hay, dreams about an angel, and wakes up on fire with religious poetry. ![]()
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