Cædmon
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Cædmon (flourished c. 670, said to have died c. 680) is the earliest English poet whose name is known. An Anglo-Saxon herdsman attached to the double monastery of Streonæshalch (Whitby Abbey) during the abbacy of St. Hilda (657 - 680), he was originally ignorant of "the art of song" but supposedly learned to compose one night in the course of a dream. He later became a zealous monk and an accomplished and inspirational religious poet.
Quotes
[edit]- Light was first
Through the Lord's word
Named day:
Beauteous, bright creation!- Creation. The First Day (c. 670)
- The fiend with all his comrades
Fell then from heaven above,
Through as long as three nights and days,
The angels from heaven into hell;
And them all the Lord transformed to devils,
Because they his deed and word
Would not revere.- Creation: The Fall of the Rebel Angels (c. 670).
- Translated by Benjamin Thorpe, Caedmon's Metrical Paraphrase of Parts of the Holy Scriptures in Anglo-Saxon (London: Society of Antiquaries, 1832)
