“Cædmon’s Hymn” is a very early Old English poem, from around 650 to 680 CE, so 7th century. Our only source for it and for Cædmon’s life is Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Bede describes Cædmon very much like the wealthy churchmen of Brother Lawrence’s day described the “uneducated” friar. Bede says Cædmon was an illiterate herdsman who lived at the Whitby monastery on the northeast shore of North Yorkshire. If that is true, we know for sure that he suffered very cold winters there, taking care of livestock.
The story of Cædmon has many versions. One says he couldn’t make music and so never played the harp or sang during gatherings. But one day he had a dream, and in it a man ordered him to “SING” something. Cædmon protested, saying he didn’t know how to sing, but the man in his dream insisted and Cædmon then sang about the Creator and in praise of God. The song he sang very much reminds me of my early childhood days of being in a church choir, and we sang “This is my Father’s world, and to my listening ears, all nature sings and round me rings, the music of the spheres.” I wish it had included “Mother’s world” and “Parents’ world.”
Cædmon had miraculously received the gift of religious song and became (like Brother Lawrence) widely known to the monks as a faithful, singing, and inspiring “lay brother.” According to Bede, Cædmon also composed other religious stories and poems which demonstrated his gift to the monks. But the only surviving one today is “Cædmon’s Hymn.”
Because no tape recorders existed in the 7th century, I created a melody for it two decades ago (while swinging my children on the playground), and I’ve been singing it very often ever since. As meditation. It is calming and I love its theme of gratitude for nature. Every day I’m grateful for the miraculous gift of nature.
You can listen to me sing it on my YouTube Channel here.
After I sing “Cædmon’s Hymn” in Old English, I sing it in my modern English translation.
Nu sculon herigean heofonrices Weard,
Meotodes meahte ond his modgeþanc,
weorc Wuldorfæder, swa he wundra gehwæs,
ece Drihten, or onstealde.
He ærest sceop eorðan bearnum
heofon to hrofe, halig Scyppend.
þa middangeard monncynnes Weard,
ece Drihten, æfter teode
firum foldan, Frea ælmihtig.
Now let’s sing everyday Mystery,
Maker’s matter and kind mindfulness,
our Parent’s gift of Creation and their Presence.
Our Friend made each wonder’s beginning,
first they shaped skies as a roof
for all the earth’s children.
Then sacred Shaper, present Friend
made the middle-world,
the solid ground
for everyone.
For these gifts we thank the kind Beloved!
This was recorded during an atmospheric river. So you hear the sump pump go off for a few seconds and also at the end you slightly hear some rain pattering down.
My translation makes the language more inclusive while cleaving to the original spirit and the words’ etymological roots. You can see the literal translation below if you wish.
Literal Translation:
Now we should praise the heavenly kingdom’s guardian!
The Creator’s power and His thoughts.
The work made by the Glory Father,
the eternal Lord, who established the beginning.
He first shaped, for earth’s children,
Heaven as roof, holy Maker.
Then the eternal Lord, mankind’s guardian,
next made the solid ground, almighty Lord!