![]() ![]() ![]() He was given further religious instruction from which according to Bede he produced a large oeuvre of splendid vernacular religious songs. When Cædmon returned the next morning with the desired poem, he was ordered to take monastic vows. They asked him about his vision and tested his gift by giving him a second commission, this time for a poem based on “a passage of sacred history or doctrine” of their own choosing. The next morning he was taken to the abbess and her counsellors. Our sole source of original information about Cædmon’s life and work is found in Bede's, Historia ecclesiastica, Book IV Chapter 24 (edited in Colgrave and Mynors 1969):Īccording to Bede, Cædmon was a lay brother at Streonæshalch who was inspired to compose vernacular English poetry after a dream in which an unknown interlocutor approached him and asked him to sing principium creaturarum “the beginning of created things.” He immediately produced a short eulogistic poem praising God as the creator of heaven and earth. ![]() Life Bede's Historia ecclesiastica Summary of narrative ![]()
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