Saint Bede the Venerable was one of the greatest scholars of the early Middle Ages. He recorded the history of Anglo-Saxon England and the rise of Christianity in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, which he wrote in Latin. It contains many stories of saints and miracles that testify to the glory of God. Caedmon, with his apparently miraculous gift of song, brought divine subject matter to the traditional forms of pagan oral poetry and founded a school of Christian poetry.

From An Ecclesiastical History of the English People

By Saint Bede the Venerable

Heavenly grace had especially singled out a certain one of the brothers in the monastery ruled by this abbess, for he used to compose devout and religious songs. Whatever he learned of holy Scripture with the aid of interpreters, he quickly turned into the sweetest and most moving poetry in his own language, that is to say English. It often happened that his songs kindled a contempt for this world and a longing for the life of Heaven in the hearts of many men. Indeed, after him others among the English people tried to compose religious poetry, but no one could equal him because he was not taught the art of song by men or by human agency but received this gift through heavenly grace. Therefore, he was never able to compose any vain and idle songs but only such as dealt with religion and were proper for his religious tongue to utter. As a matter of fact, he had lived in the secular estate until he was well advanced in age without learning any songs. Therefore, at feasts, when it was decided to have a good time by taking turns singing, whenever he would see the harp getting close to his place, he got up in the middle of the meal and went home.

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Once when he left the feast like this, he went to the cattle shed, which he had been assigned the duty of guarding that night. And after he had stretched himself out and gone to sleep, he dreamed that someone was standing at his side and greeted him, calling out his name. “Caedmon,” he said, “sing me something”.

And he replied, “I don’t know how, to sing; that is why I left the feast to come here—because I cannot sing”.

“All the same,” said the one who was speaking to him, “you have to sing for me”.

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“What must I sing?” he said.

And he said, “Sing about the Creation”.

At this, Caedmon immediately began to sing verses in praise of God the Creator, which he had never heard before and of which the sense is this:

Now we must praise heaven-kingdom’s Guardian,

the Measurer’s might and his mind-plans

the work of the Glory-Father, when he of wonders of every one,

eternal Lord, the beginning established.

He first created for men’s sons

heaven as a roof, holy Creator;

then middle-earth mankind’s Guardian,

eternal Lord, afterwards made—

for men earth, Master almighty.

This is the general sense but not the exact order of the words that he sang in his sleep; for it is impossible to make a literal translation, no matter how well-written, of poetry into another language without losing some of the beauty and dignity. When he woke up, he remembered everything that he had sung in his sleep, and to this he soon added, in the same poetic measure, more verses praising God.

The next morning he went to the reeve, who was his foreman, and told him about the gift he had received. He was taken to the abbess and ordered to tell his dream and to recite his song to an audience of the most learned men so that they might judge what the nature of that vision was and where it came from. It was evident to all of them that he had been granted the heavenly grace of God. Then they expounded some bit of sacred story or teaching to him, and instructed him to turn it into poetry if he could. He agreed and went away. And when he came back the next morning, he gave back what had been commissioned to him in the finest verse.

Therefore, the abbess, who cherished the grace of God in this man, instructed him to give up secular life and to take monastic vows. And when she and all those subject to her had received him into the community of brothers, she gave orders that he be taught the whole sequence of sacred history. He remembered everything that he was able to learn by listening, and turning it over in his mind like a clean beast that chews the cud, he converted it into sweetest song, which sounded so delightful that he made his teachers, in their turn, his listeners. He sang about the creation of the world and the origin of the human race and all the history of Genesis; about the exodus of Israel out of Egypt and entrance into the promised land; and about many other stories of sacred Scripture, about the Lord’s incarnation, and his passion, resurrection, and ascension into Heaven; about the advent of the Holy Spirit and the teachings of the apostles. He also made many songs about the terror of the coming judgement and the horror of the punishments of hell and the sweetness of the heavenly kingdom; and a great many others besides about divine grace and justice in all of which he sought to draw men away from the love of sin and to inspire them with delight in the practice of good works.

Appears in

English Literature; Bede the Venerable, Saint