Cædmon

Cædmon was an English poet of the late 7th century. He is the first known poet of English literature and an old English only twelve poets whose names have survived. Cædmons career is described in the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum of Bede the Venerable; Bede's report states that he was a simple shepherd, which, in a dream the gift of poetry was awarded.

From his work only nine stab through long lines of a creation hymn have been preserved. They apply in addition to the runic inscriptions on the cross of Ruthwell runes and the box of Auzon the oldest testimony of the Old English language.

Life

Bede's report

According to Bede Cædmon was a herdsman of the northern English double monastery Streonæshalch (now ruined monastery is known as Whitby Abbey ). When one evening entertained the monks of the monastery with harp playing and singing, he withdrew sadly back, because he knew no songs, and lay down beside his animals to sleep. In the dream occurred "someone" ( quidem ) approached him and asked him to sing "the beginning of created beings " ( principium creaturarum ). At first he refused, but eventually wrote a short poem of praise to God and his creation.

When he awoke the next morning, he remembered this dream poem and then wrote some additional lines. After he had told others about the gift that was given to him in a dream, he was interrogated by the abbess of the monastery, which came to the conclusion that Cædmon actually received a gift from God. To be sure, they told him to write another poem. When Cædmon the next morning demanded poem actually submitted his appeal was finally recognized. He put off the monastic vows and so was a lay brother of the abbey. The abbess held the other monks to teach him in teaching and history of the Church, he should take in melodious verses. According to Bede Cædmon created an extensive poetic work. After a long and godly life, he died peacefully. When he felt his death approaching, he was laid at his request in the monastic hospice, gathered his friends around and wide just before the reading of the Nocturnes.

Dating

In his description of Cædmons life Beda indicates no data. The vow he should have passed at an advanced age; at least part of his time as a monk said to have fallen in the time when the Holy Hilda presided as abbess of the monastery ( 657-680 ). Chapter 25 of the Fourth Book of Historia ecclesiastica suggests that Cædmon died at about the time (his Temporibus ) than in the Coldingham Abbey broke out a large fire. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle gives the year 679 for this event to Bede it is dated, however, at least two years later; the next datable event in his Historia is Ecgfrith Ireland campaign in the year 684 However, it is possible that the passage in question in Bede's History does not relate to Cædmons death, but rather general to his work. Based on this evidence can be the beginning of Cædmons creative period at a time between the years 657 and 680, narrow his date of death to the years 679-684.

Name research

Bede wrote that (old) English Cædmons was " own" language, but according to the findings of modern linguistics is his proper name of Celtic origin (proto - Welsh * Cadvan, Brythonic * Catumandos ); therefore it is likely that he himself was a Celt, or at least bilingual. Some researchers vermeinen similarities between Cædmons hymn to have spotted the old Irish poetry and interpret this as an indication of its Celtic origin.

Other researchers suggest, however, Bede's account of the sealing monk was an allegory and Cædmons name thus be read as a descriptive name; in this theory, the name is interpreted as a modification of Adam Kadmon.

Other medieval sources

The only further mention Cædmons found in the dated to the 10th century Old English translation of Bede's Historia. This contains some details that go beyond the report in the original Latin version. So Cædmon is said to have felt toward his vision of shame, that he was ignorant of singing; Also it says in the translation that Hilda's scribes Cædmons Verses " from his lips " ( æt Mude ) wrote down. These deviations from Bede's report can in no way lead to the conclusion that there was an independent Beda English tradition of Cædmons history.

The Heliand

An allusion to Cædmon is found in two related Latin texts within the Old Saxon Heliand epic. (One of the only Heliand and the rest of Genesis handed ) These writings, a Praefatio ( preface ) including Versus de Poeta ( About the Poet ), report on the alleged origins of the Old Saxon Bibelepik in words, the Bede's account of Cædmon same and sometimes even correspond verbatim. According to the Praefatio the old Saxon poem on behalf of the Emperor Louis the Pious was written by a poet who knew nothing densities until he was commanded in a dream (ie Saxon, not Latin ) to redefine the rules of the divine law in vernacular poetry. The Versus de Poeta describe this dream in detail; Thus the poet was a shepherd before his appointment; the vision came to him, when he fell asleep one evening after work.

These two texts have survived only in an issue of Flacius Illyricus from the 16th century, but on the basis of grammatical and semantic analyzes can be assumed that they were in the Middle Ages, possibly as early as the 12th century, written.

Work

Bede's report, Cædmon created an extensive body of work vernacular (ie Old English ) religious poetry. In contrast to the seal of the Holy Aldhelm of Sherborne and Dunstan he wrote exclusively on religious themes, including, according to Bede creation of songs, translations from the New as the Old Testament, and songs about the " horrors of the Day of Judgement and hell, and the joys of the heavenly kingdom ".

From this work, only the first nine lines of his first work are preserved, so the poem to write which was applied to him in his dream. Other vernacular poems that respect the content of Bede's description of Cædmons works are preserved in the so-called Cædmon manuscript, but it is true due to stylistic differences to Cædmons hymn as very unlikely that they were actually written by Cædmon.

The work only surviving Cædmons thus the neunzeilige fragment of a song creation. It is recorded in 21 manuscript copies and is therefore after the funeral dirge of the Beda meistbezeugte poem of Old English literature.