BEDE'S STORY OF CA3DMAN: THE CASE HISTORY

OF AN ANGLO-SAXON ORAL SINGER'

BY FRANCIS P. MAGOUN,JR

IN Book IV, ch. 22 (24) of his HistoriaEcelesiasticaGentisAnglorum,completed

in A.D. 731, Bede, monk of Saint Paul's monastery,Jarrow,County Durham,
tells the storyof an unletteredfarmhand,Caedmanby name, who in an unexpected fashion,reportedlysupernatural,developpedthe art of orallycomposing
narrativeverse on Biblical-Christiansubjects. Caedman,composinghis songs
somefifty
yearsbeforeBede was writing,was an employeeon the monasticestate
milessouthofJarrowon the Yorkshire
at Stretnas-halc,today Whitby,about fifty
coast.2This chapterin Bede is of peculiarinterestto studentsof oral poetry,3as
wellas to thoseof Anglo-Saxonliterature,in that it furnishesan account,a casehistoryindeed,ofcertainpartsof the careerofan oral singerof thepast. It is the
only such account known to me that goes back substantiallyearlier than the
memoryof livingmen. The chapter in questionfollowson, and is closely connectedwith,an encomiasticappraisal (ch. 21 [23]) of the rule of Hild (659-680),
builderand abbess ofthe Whitbyfoundation.
Only the firsttwo-thirdsof the chapter,devoted to Caedmanas a singerof
tales, is translatedhere; the resthas to do withhis death and is irrelevantto the
matterin hand.
THE STORY OF CIEDMAN OF WHITBY
Chapter22 (24)
towhom
thegiftofsinging
(relates)
thatin hermonastery
wasa brother
wasdivinely
given(divinitus
concessum).
of thatabbesswas a certainbrotherespeciallymarkedby divine
In the monastery
songs
grace(divinagratiaspecialiter
insignis)in thathe was in thehabitof composing
ofSacred
helearnedthrough
toreligion
andpiety,so thatwhatever
pertaining
interpreters
he rendered
thesamein a shorttimein hisownlanguage,namely,thatofthe
Writings
formulas?
verbispoeticis),composed
English(Anglorum),in poeticalwords(traditional
withthegreatest
and mostinspiring
sweetness
quality.By hissongsthespiritsofmany
life.Andafter
wereoftenfired
toscornofthisworldandtoan eagerdesirefortheheavenly
I The presentpaper representsan elaborationof a portionof the third ("Some Problemsof the
Future") of three Special UniversityLectures (series-title:"Oral-FormulaicTradition in AngloSaxon Poetry") deliveredin the Senate House of London University24 January1952. The Chart
(p. 62, below) is a revisionof a mimeographedcounterpartdistributedat the thirdlecture.On the
XXVIII(1953), 446, n. 1.
otherlecturesof this seriessee SPECULUM,
2 For a generaldiscussionof Ca-dmanand the Hymnsee AlbertHugh Smith, ThreeNorthumbrian
Poems, etc. (London: Methuen, 1933), pp. 10-15, and forlater bibliographyGeorge K. Anderson,
oftheAnglo-Saxons(Princeton,New Jersey:PrincetonUniversityPress,1949), p. 145.
The Literature
workin recentyearson the essentialnatureand techniquesofthe orallycomposed
3 For significant
to Parrygivenbepoetryofunletteredsingerssee SPECULUM, XXVii (1953), 446, notes2-3; references
low are as definedthere.For furthermaterialon the heroicsongsofYugoslavia see now AlbertBates
Lord, Serbo-CroatianHeroic Songs (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UniversityPress, 1958), passim,
fororiginaltextsand English translations.See also n. 7, below.

49

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Bede's Storyof CwTdman

himthisand thatpersonamongthe people ofthe Englishtriedto composereligiouspoems

but no one was able to equal him (nulluseum aequipararepotuit).For he had learnedthe
art of singingneitherfrommen nor fromman (cp. Galatians,i, 1) but receivedthe gift
of singingdivinelyaided (divinitusadiutus). For thisreasonhe was neverable to compose
any sort of trivialor purposelesspoem, but only those whichconcernedpiety suited his
devout tongue.
Indeed, he was establishedin a secularway oflifeto the timeof a ratheradvanced age
(provectioris
aetatis) without ever having learned any songs (nil carminumaliquando
it was
didicerat).Consequently,sometimesat table when forthe sake of merrymaking
voted that one and all should take tums singing,he, noticingthe harp (cithara)coming
near him,would get up in the middleof a meal and, leaving,go back home.
On a certainoccasionhe did this and, quittingthe banquet-hall,wentout to tlle stable
oftheanimalswhosetendinghad been assignedhimthatnightand hereat thepropertime
surrendered
his limbsto sleep. Then therestood by himin a dreama certainperson,who,
greetinghim and also addressinghim by name, said: "Caedman,sing me something."In
reply,however,Caedmansaid: "I do not knowhowto sing; in fact I leftthe banquet-hall
and retiredforthe veryreasonthat I could not sing." Againthe personwho was talkingto
him said: "Nevertheless,you have in mind (something)to sing for me (mihi cantare
habes)." "What," said Caedman,"should I sing?" Whereuponthe personsaid: "Sing of
the beginningof createdthings."On receivingthis answer,Caedmanimmediatelybegan
to sing in praise of God the Creatorverseswhichhe had neverheard,of whichthesense
is this:
"Now we should praise the Originatorof the heavenly kingdom,the power of the
Creatorand His plan, the acts of the Father of Glory;how He, since God is eternal,became authorof all miracles,(He) Who createdfirstforthe sons of men (filiishominum)
Heaven as a roofof (their)abode - afterwardthe almightyGuardianof the humanrace
(created)theEarth."
This is the sense, thoughnot the exact orderof words of what Caedman sang in his
sleep; forpoems, be they ever so well composed (in the original),cannot be translated
literallyfromone language to anotherwithoutdetrimentto theirbeauty and worth.
Whenhe got up fromhissleep,he rememberedeverything
he had sungwhileasleep and
to this he later added in the same stylemorewordsof song worthyof God.
And going next morningto the estate-superintendent
who was over him,he disclosed
what sortof gifthe had receivedand, on beingtaken to the abbess, he was orderedin the
presenceof quite learned men to disclose his dream and to recite the song, so that by
theircommonjudgmentit mightbe determinedwhat it was or whencehad come what he
was reporting.And it seemed to all that divinegrace had been conferredon him by God
ei a Dominoconcessamessegratiam).And theyexpoundedto hima certaintopic
(coelestem
of Sacred Storyor Teaching,biddinghim,if he could, to turnthis into poetical rhythm.
Whereuponhe, undertakingthe task, departedand, comingback next morning,recited
what he had been orderedto recite,composedin excellentverse.
Accordingly,the abbess, immediatelyappreciatingGod's grace in the man (amplexata
gratiamDei in viro),instructedhim to give up the secular way of lifeand to adopt the
monastic.And whenhe had done so, she attachedhim withall his belongingsto the company of the brethrenin the monasteryand orderedhim to be taught the sequence of
Sacred Narrative.And rememberingeverything,he was able to learn by ear (audiendo
discerepoterat)and, meditatingon it as a clean beast chews its cud, he would turn (it)
into the sweetestverse and, melodiouslyreechoingthis, made his teachers in turn his
auditors.
He sang about the Creationof the World,the originof the humanrace, and the whole
storyof Genesis,about the departureof the IsraelitesfromEgypt and the entryinto the
PromisedLand, about verymanyotherstoriesofSacred Scripture,about the Incarnation
of Our Lord, the Passion, Resurrection,and Ascensioninto heaven, the comingof the

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Bede's Storyof Caedman

51

HolySpirit,and theteachingof theApostles.Likewise,

he composedmanysongsabout
theLast Judgment
and thehorror
of infernal
punishment,
also manypoemsaboutthe
oftheheavenly
andjudgsweetness
kingdom,
alsoverymanyothersaboutdivinebenefits
ments....4
Bede's narrativeraises a numberof issues whichwill be dealt within the followingorder: (1) The Traditional(Oral-formulaic)Characterof the Old-English
Text of the Hymn; (2) The Date of C,-dman's Dream, His Age at that Time,
and his LiteraryBackground; (3) Anglo-SaxonChristianPoetry beforeCaedman; (4) The Miracle: a Rational Interpretation;(5) Caedman'sUltimateRepertory;(6) What Songs of Caedmanhave survived?;(7) Conclusion.
1. THE TRADITIONAL (ORAL-FORMULAIC)CHARACTER OF THE OLD-ENGLISH
TEXT OF THE HYMN

In the passage above, Bede, withsome apologies,gives in Latin translationa

hymnor doxologywhichCaedmanis said to have composed in his sleep at the
promptingofa stranger,presumablyfeltby the dreamerto be a heavenlyvisitor,
an angel. ApartfromBede's Latin versionwe have also an Old-Englishtextpreservedin the relativelyenormousnumberof seventeencopies,of whichfourgive
an Old-Northumbrianversion,thirteenWest-Saxon (five in the West-Saxon
Bede, eightin manuscriptsof the Latin Bede) ;5 among thesecopies are a couple
whichwillbe considered
variants(apart frommerespellingdifferences)
oftrifling
brieflybelow. In nine typographicallines,or better,ninepairs of verses- since
Anglo-Saxonpoetryis composedessentiallyin verseunits- Cxedmancomposed
in his sleep his little doxology.Embellished with the use of the conventional
rhetoricaldevice of parallelismor variationit says in effect:"Let us praise God
4Translated fromCharles Plummer,VenerabilisBaedae IIistoria EcclesiasticaGentisAnglorum,
etc., i (Oxford,1895), 258-261.
perhaps,too, in theBeowulfscenes mentioned
The harp that circulatedat Ca-dman'sdinner-table,
in n. 19, below,was quite likelyofthe relativelysmall and handysize ofthe SuttonHoo harp reconstructedin the workshopsof Arnold Dolmetsch, Ltd., at Haslemere,Surrey,in consultationwith
was probablynot
archaeologicalexperts.Accordingto Mrs Dolmetsch"The (SuttonHoo) instrument
of the largesttype,but one that would be handed around the banquetingtable" (reportedin "The
Sutton Hoo Musical Instrument,"The ArchaeologicalNews Letter,i, No. 1 [London, April 1948],
harp on exhibitin the BritishMuseum may be seen
11-13, withfigure).Photos of the reconstructed
in Rupert L. S. Bruce-Mitford,"The Sutton Hoo Ship-burial,"Proceedingsof theRoyal Institute
of GreatBritain,XXXIV,Pt iii, No. 156 (1950), P1. II B, facingp. 447, and in ScientificAmerican,
Vol. 184, No. 4 (April 1951), 24-30 passim; thereis also a plate in Roslyn Rensch, The Harp, etc.
(New York: PhilosophicalLibrary,1950), p. 14, P1. IV, fig.1.
of the Sutton Hoo harp highlightsthe discussionof the role
and reconstruction
The identification
of the harp in the deliveryof Anglo-Saxonpoetryby John C. Pope, The Rhythmof Be'owulf(New
Haven, Connecticut:Yale UniversityPress, 1942), pp. 88-95; on the harp in connectionwith Old
Frisian poetrysee SPECULUM, XXIII (1948), 508.
For a briefdiscussionofthe harp in the generalsettingofthe ship-burialsee mostrecentlyBruceMitfordin Robert Howard Hodgkin,A HistoryoftheAnglo-Saxons,ii (3rd ed., Oxford,1952), 700.
6 On the manuscripts,
text,and variantsof the Hymnsee Smith,op. cit.,pp. 1-4 (Northumbrian
Mss.), 38-41 (Northumbrianand West-Saxon versionsfacing,with Northumbrianvariants); also
Elliot V. K. Dobbie, The ManuscriptsofCadmon'sHymnand Bede's Death Song (New York: Columbia UniversityPress, 1937), pp. 10-48, embracingall texts.

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Bede's Storyof Caedman

and His works.God firstcreated heaven as a roofformen, then the Earth for
them."The inspirationofthepiece may wellbe liturgical.6
Beforeexaminingthe Hymnwitha view to determining
the natureof its language, it willbe well to stressthe fact that orallycomposedpoetryby unlettered
singers- or occasionallyby letteredsingerscomposingaccordingto the technique oftheirunletteredfellows- as opposed to the workofletteredpoets with
readyaccess to writingmaterials,is put togethernot wordby wordwithdeliberationand at leisurebut rapidlyin thepresenceofa liveaudienceby meansofreadymade phrases fillingjust measures of isochronousverse capable of expressing
every idea that the singermay wish to expressin various metricalsituations.
the verseofthe
These phrasesmay be called formulasand theiruse distinguishes
orally composed poems of unletteredsingerswhetherAnglo-Saxon,Faroese,7
or Serbo-Croatian,1"
Finnish,8Hlomeric,9
to mentionno others.It is quitepossible,
6

la.

Smith,op. cit.,p. 38, n. 1, esp. the liturgicalincipit:We sculonGodherian,withwhichcp. Hymn

7 The highlyformulaiccharacterof the Faroese ballads is emphasizedby Helmut De Boor, Die

faroischenLieder des Nibelungenzyklus
(Heidelberg,1918), p. 8: "But particularlyin the Faroese
ballads the poeticalformulaplaysan absolutelydominantrole,incomparablymorethanin the Danish
and Swedishballads and, indeed,than in any (other)Germanic[!] poeticalgenre";p. 9: "The Faroese
ballads have not stoppedwiththe formulaicline; theyalso have in large numbersformulaicstanzas
and seriesof stanzas, i.e., traditionalsituationsand scenes." These long formulasto whichDe Boor
refersare in effect"themes," which,like formulas,may oftenforman importantpart of a singer's
From AS poetryreaderswillrecallthe themeofbeasts conventionallyassociatedwith
stock-in-trade.
the fieldof battle so popular withthe singersand discussedby myselfin "The Theme of theBeasts
LVI (1955), forthcoming,
withliteraof Battle in Anglo-SaxonPoetry,"Neuphilologische
Mitteilungen,
in The Pre- and Protohistoric
ture.On the basis of thematerialsanalysedby JohnAbercromby
Finns
... withtheMagic Songs of the WestFinns, n (London, 1898), 40 ff.,it is clear that the Finnish
werecommonlybuiltup out ofan assortmentof themesfamiliarto the
metricalcharms(loitsurunot)
singers"thoughworkedout in a greatvarietyof phraseology"(loc. cit.,p. 41,1. 3).
8 On Finnishtraditionalor runo-poetry,
most familiarthroughElias L8nnrot'scollectingand ceshortishnarrativepoemsunderthe titleKalevala but abundantlyrepresented
mentingtogetheroffifty
in lyrics(cp. Loinnrot'sKantele,Kanteletar)and metricalcharms(loisturunot),
proverbs(sananlaskut),
and metricalriddles (arvoitukset),
see Domenico Comparetti,The TraditionalPoetryof theFinns,
translatedfromthe Italian by Isabella M. Anderton(London, 1898), esp. pp. 2-4, 10-15, 18, 62-69,
kindofa studybut with
ofthe oralbackground.For a verydifferent
on variousfeaturescharacteristic
muchrelevantmattersee Kaarle Krohn,Kalevalastudienpublishedbetween1924 and 1928 (Helsinki)
in FolkloreFellowsCommunications,
Nos. 53 (1924), 67 (1926), 71-72 (1927), 75-76 (1928). The formulaic character(withtraditionalepithets,recurrentphrasesand verses,parallelismor variation)ofthe
verseofthe Kalevala emergesquite clearlyin the verse-translation
ofWilliamForsellKirby,Kalevala:
theLand of Heroes,two volumesin "Everyman's Library,"(1907). It shouldbe noted that the prose
translationof Kalevala (Hancock, Mich.: Book Concern,1950) by Mrs Aili KolehmainenJohnson
is so freeas successfullyto eliminatemost of the characteristicfeaturesof the diction.Throughhis
relativelyclose and cleverimitationof many features- "repetitions"(formulas),initial anaphora,
and paralellism("variation" of Germanicphilology)- of Kalevala-verseHenry WadsworthLongfellowcontrivedon the basis of AntonSchiefner'sKalewala, das NationaleposderFinnen,etc. (Helsinki,1852), to illustratein The Song ofHiawatha (1855) many ofthe featuresofFinnishtraditional
poetry.It may be remarkedthat any strictreproductionof the quantitativelystrictmeterof this
Finnish poetry(essentiallytrochaictetrameter)is quite impossiblein a non-quantitativelanguage
like English.On all this see Tauno F. Mustanoja and Ernest J. Moyne, "Longfellow'sSong of Hiawathaand Kalevala," AmericanLiterature,
xxv (1953), 87-89.

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53

to be sure,to composeveryshortpoems mentallywordby wordand to memorize

them,thusgivingthema fixedtextwhichcan be summonedup verbatimon occasion,but thisis notpossiblein thecase ofa poem ofany substantiallength.Limericks,forexample,are easily composedmentallyby people witha knackforthat
sortof thing,likewisesonnets.Coleridgesays he retainedand wrotedown fiftyfourlines (out of two or three hundred) of Kubla Khan, composed while in a
laudanum-inducedsleep" and in his blindnessJohnMilton was able to compose
shortbatchesof verseand keep these in minduntilthe arrivalof an amanuensis
to take them down fromdictation.12Appreciablymore than that is out of the
questionwithoutthe aid of writingmaterials.CaLdmanmighttheoreticallyhave
composed his Hymn word by word as we compose poetry,but an analysis of
the language makes abundantly clear that the Hymn is made up entirelyof
formulasor systemsofformulas,in a word,that its languageis quite traditional.
The late Milman Parrydefineda poeticalformulaas "a groupof wordswhichis
regularlyemployedunderthe same metricalconditionsto expressa givenessential idea"'3 and these are marked on the Chart (p. 62, below) by solid underlining.As forsystemsofformulashe writes:"any groupof two or moresuch like
formulasmakesup a system,and the systemmay be definedin turnas a groupof
phraseswhichhave thesame metricalvalue and whichare enoughalike inthought
and wordsto leave no doubt that the poet who used them knew themnot only
as a singleformula,but also as formulasofa certaintype."'4The latterare marked
on the Chart by brokenunderlining.Followingthe markedtext comes the supportingevidence,'5i.e., instancesof verses of the Hymn recurringelsewherein
the Anglo-Saxonpoetical corpus of some 30,000 verses,a little more than that
ofthe Iliad and Odysseycombined.
To turn to the Chart. Though mere repetitionin a given poem or group of
poems does not automaticallyconstitutea formula- since a letteredpoet may
I

See Parry passim.

10See Lord's unpublishedHarvard thesis passim.

11See Coleridge'spreliminary
statementor headnoteto the poem in ErnestHartley Coleridge,ed.,
ThePoemsofSamuel TaylorColeridge,
etc. (Oxford,1917), pp. 295-297.
12 Reportedin David Masson, The Life of Milton,vi (London, 1880), 464-466, quotingthe poet's
nephew,Edward Phillips,to the effectthat Milton composed"in a parcel of ten, twenty,or thirty
verses at a time, which being writtendown by whateverhand" (fromWilliam Godwin, Life of
Milton [London, 18151,pp. 130, 376). Masson supplementsthis with a statementby Jonathan
Richardsonthat Milton used to composefortylines at a time,summonone of his daughtersat any
old hour, and dictate the same. Richardson furtherspeculates that Milton ultimatelyknew all
Paradise Lost by heart; thisby no means unequalled prodigyofmemorywould,ofcourse,be possible
ifpeople read aloud the (fixed)text of the poem to him again and again as it progressed.
13 Parry
I, 80.

Idem,I, 85 ff.
are essentiallybased on G. P. Krapp and E. V. K. Dobbie, edd.,
Quotationsand line-references
TheAnglo-SaxonPoeticRecords,I-VI (New York: ColumbiaUniversityPress,1931-53), withspellings
normalizedon the basis ofearlyWest Saxon as set forthin Les LanguesModernes,XLV (1951), 68-69.
in a threelettercode ofthe titlesofthe poems citedhereare based on the KrappTitle-abbreviations
Dobbie titles;abbreviationsforthe titlesofall Anglo-Saxonpoems willappear in a forthcoming
issue
of EtudesAnglaises.
14

16

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Bede's Storyof Ccedman

on occasionrepeatversesofhis own or borrowa versefromanotherpoet forsome

rhetoricalpurpose- a formula,as definedabove, is mostobviousand mosteasily
identifiedon its second or thirdoccurrence.Thus verses la, 2a, 2b, 3a, 4a, 4b,
5a, 5b, 7a, 8a, 9a, whencomparedwiththe supportingevidence,standout clearly
as formulas;theseoccurexactlythe same elsewhereor,as in the case ofverses4a
syntactical
to fita slightlydifferent
and 4b, withsometrifling
changein inflection
situation,a minoradjustmentover whicha singercomposingorally would not
need to ponderor hesitate.
3a. Wuldor-fader
may be called a formula,not merelybecause thiscompound
happens to occur elsewherebut because it fillsa just measureof verse,here the
secondmeasureofa D-verse.Elsewhereit willbe notedthat withsomepreceding
unstressedwordor wordsit lets the singermake the secondmeasureofa B-verse.
scop (5a), withthe substitutionforarestof
Much the same can be said of k'rest
onfrymine.
4b. or onstealde,along with 5b, is one of the two verses wherea substantial
variant (ord) is recordedin the wordingof the transmittedtexts,the varying
wordsbeingsynonymsand ofequal metricaland alliterativevalue. On themorning afterthe dream Caedmanmust have sung eitheror or ord onstealde,but not
both; both phrasesare formulaic,thoughit willpresumablyneverbe possibleto
knowwhichhe utteredon that particularmorningnordoes it reallymatter.Our
of two separateperformances,
or one variantor
textsmay reflecta transcription
othermay merelybe the workofan inadvertentscribe.
5b. ielda bearnumis at once a formulain its own rightand simultaneouslyone
phase of quite a largeformulaicsystemx bearnum(-a), whereforx a singercould
use any one of a numberof words in the genitiveplural meaning "men"; the
usefulto expressthe idea 'people' 'humanbeings'in the dat.
systemis manifestly
plur.,less oftenin the gen. plur., withinthe limitsof an A-verseor an A-type
secon(Imeasureofan expandedverse.Equally popularis dryltaand mannabearbearnum(-a) six
num (-a), whilehaile;a bearnum(-a) is used fivetimesand niJ,J,a
times; leoda bearnumis recordedonly once. The variant eor;Yanbearnum,like
leoda bearnumof Chr 1424, does not occur elsewherewhichis not to say that it
was not in relativelycommon use by singers;for what this may be worth,
however,it may be noted that it was evidentlynot used in the versionof the
Hymn which reached Bede (filiis hominum)writingfiftyor sixty years after
Caedman.Furthermore,eor;Yanbearnumis not properlypart of the formulaic
"earth" is no equivalentofthe variouswords
systemunderdiscussionin thateor;Ye
for"men" used in the system.The formulamay have been createdon someanalogy with the formulaeor;Yantt'dor(Gen 1402, XSt 657, Chr 688) by Caedman
himselfor somelatersingerofthe Hymn.
In sum,thereare onlythreeout ofeighteenversesor sixteen-plusper cent (6a,
6b, 9a) whichare not whollyor in part matchedelsewhere;accordinglyeightythree-plusper cent of the language of the Hymn is demonstrablytraditional.
Were the survivingcorpus twiceas extensive,there mightwell have been no
versewhosetraditionalcharactercould not be demonstrated.

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2. THE DATE OF CIEDMAN'S DREAM, HIS AGE AT THAT TIME, AND HIS
LITERARY BACKGROUND

The beginningof Caedman'spublic singingmust have been between658 and

680, the years of Hild's rule as abbess of Whitby,and no more precise date is
likelyto be arrivedat on the basis of our presentsources.For practicalpurposes,
however,it is convenientto splitthe difference
and to imaginea compromisedate
like 670, forty-five
years afterthe comingof Paulinus to York and thirty-five
afterAidan of Iona settledon Holy Isle (Lindisfarne)offthe Northumberland
coast. Christianityhad reached the south nearlyseventy-five
years beforethis
time.A.D. 670 is also close to the timewhenAldhelmwas singingat Malmesbury
in the southwest.16
There is also the questionof Csxdman'sage whenhe began to sing- at whatever date. Popular thoughtfromthe late ninthcenturyon has tended to think
of him as old at that time,reallyold, and so he may have been. Bede describes
him as provectioris
aetatis"of ratheradvanced age," a somewhatrelativeindicaAbrahamand his ninety-year-old
wifeSarah (Gen.
tion. The hundred-year-old
xviii,11) are said to be ambosenesprovectae
aetatis.Chaucer expressesabout the
same idea by the phrase somdeelstape in age to describea poor widow who is
otherwiseobviouslya healthyand veryvigorouswoman,perhapsnot a day over
The West-Saxon renderingof Bede's provectioris
aetatis is 3elfdre
thirty-five.
ielde"of feebleor infirm
old age" and seemsto go a touchbeyondBede; to think
or to claim that this West-Saxontraditionrestson some sortof continuingword
to mouthtraditionwould be a shaky business.To judge fromthe careersof the
oral singersof Yugoslavia, many of whichhave been collectedand studied by
Parryand by Lord, it is unusualfora singerto develop in himselfthe art of singing aftergrowingup; forthe mostpart they- and verylikelyall oral singersof
all timesand places learn to singin theirteens,thoughbecomingmoreadept,
morepolishedwithexperience.One Yugoslav singer,however,reportedthat he
firstbegan to singat the age of twenty-eight:
16 See SPECULUM, XXVIII(1953), 454-455, n. 15, forthe text and translationofWilliamof Malmesbury's importantstatement,based on Alfredthe Great, about Aldhelmas a singer.With otheraccompanyingdiscussionsee Cyril Ernest Wright,The Cultivationof Saga in Anglo-SaxonEngland
(Edinburgh:Oliverand Boyd, 1939), pp. 21-22 (withtranslation),p. 250, ?2 (William's Latin text);
also Eleanor S. Duckett, Anglo-SaxonSaints and Scholars (New York: Macmillan, 1947), pp. 4142.
In countrieswhereoral singingis practicedthe best singinigat any given time seems to be concentratedin a certainregion.In present-dayYugoslavia the best is in the Muslim communitiesof
years ago and later,Finnish
Bosnia, Herzegovina,and Montenegro;some hundredand twenty-five
in eastern(Russian) Karelia, whichis not to say
collectorsfoundthe reallygood and richruno-singing
that thishad its originthereeitheras to formor substance (see Kaarle Krohn op. cit.,note 8 above,
data or a faulty
FFC, No. 58, pp. 80 ff.).One has the impression,perhapsfoundedon insufficient
of the survivingdata, that the best Anglo-Saxonsingingwas in the north,but the
interpretation
Aldhelmpassage testifiesto good singingin the south,at least in the seventhcentury;forclaims (not,
I think,demonstrableor substantiated)of a southernoriginofcertainsurvivingAnglo-Saxonsongs,
oftheRuin (New
see Cecilia A. Hotchner,Wessexand Old-EnglishPoetry,withSpecial Consideration
York, 1939).

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Bede's Storyof CGedman

"Saban Rahmanovic in Bihac told us [Parryand Lord] that he did not learn
to sing untilhe was about twenty-eight
in 1935) and that he
(he was forty-five
learnedhis songsfromsong-books,the Matica hrvatska
in particular.Althoughhe
could not read, somebodyhad read themto him. But he had also heard theolder
singersin his district.... In the case of Saban it is verypossible that he had
heard many singerswhen he was young- he admits having heard his uncle
sing- but thathe did notattemptto learntheart untillater."'7
Since the learningperiodof an oral singeris extendedand posits a protracted
periodoflisteningto oldersingersand ofabsorbingformulasand themes,thereis
no reason to suppose that Anglo-Saxonsingersordinarilydevelopedtheirart in
fromthe Yugoslavs. Since,however,as willappear
any substantialway different
pp. 58-59, below, Caedman must have learned to sing well beforehis public
appearance beforethe angel and the Whitby community,it makes little differenceat what age we imaginehis debut. To his monasticaudience it evidently
seemed late - old - and one mightas well imaginehim as fortyishor fiftyish
as anythingelse. In any event,once he got going,he may actuallywellhave gone
on singingto a ripeold age indeed."8
Caedman'sliterarybackgroundconsistedof everysong and storyhe ever listened to, traditionaland secular or, relativelynovel in the Anglo-Saxonworld,
religious,whetherfromsingersof tales or frompriestsor nuns tellinghim Bible
stories.All thisconstituteda literarybackgroundas much as thoughit had come
to himthroughhis eye ratherthan his ear. At the timeBede's storybegins,it is
clearthat therewas a traditionofsingingtraditionalsongson the Whitbyestate.
The basis of the careersof the overwhelming
majorityof oral singersconsistsin
listeningto othersingers,ordinarilytheirelders,and thisis impliedin Caedman's
case by the words "in convivio,cum esset laetatis causa decretum,ut omnes
per ordinemcantare deberent"; in Caedman'sset singingwas patentlya commonlypracticedart. Amongthe Anglo-Saxonsin generalthe singingof songs,
usually probablyto the accompanimentof a harp,was a favoredformof entertainmenton festiveoccasionsas witnessedin Beowulfby the settingof the Creation hymn(89b-98), of the varioussongsimpliedin 856b ff.,of the Lay of Finn
(1063-1159a), singingin the same settingpickedup again in 2107-13a (wherewe
firstlearn that Hropgar was a singerin his own right),and in Widsip 66-67b
and 103 ff.'9Csxdmanhad no doubt heardmuchsingingin the courseofhislifeon
and offthe monasticestate.
One may appropriatelyask what sort of singingCaedmanwould have heard
Lord, thesis,p. 46.
There wereaged singersamongthe subjectsofLord and Parryand similarly,includingwomenas
well as men,amongFinnishruno-singers,
as reportedin Comparetti,op. cit. (note 8 above), p. 18 and
n. 1,p. 21 and n. 1; Krohn,op. cit.(note 8 above), FFC, No. 53, p. 20.
19On the harp see n. 4, above. On antiphonal singing,possibly referredto in Widsi]3103-104
("Wit Scielling. . . sang ah6fon"), see Stefan Einarsson, "VaixelsAngi Widsifb(?),Sturlungaoch
Finland," Budiavlen,xxx (Turku/Abo,1951), 12-32; on Finnishpracticesee Comparetti,pp. 69-71,
Krohn,loc.cit.,pp. 29-30. There is a mosteffective
painting,done in 1845by the PolishartistG. Budkowskiand preservedin the FinnishNational Museum (Suomen Kansallismuseo) in Helsinkiof the
runo-singers
Olli Kymaliainenand Pietari Makkonen,singingthus with the kantele.
17
18

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at such gatheringsas he would have mostlyattendedat the monasteryor have

heardbeforethe timeofhis employmentthere.Amongthepeasantryofhis childhood and amongthe help on the Whitbyestate he mustby and largehave heard
songs dealing withtraditionalGermanicstoryor lyricalproductionsin connection with,say, weddingsand funerals,perhapson occasion magicalincantations.
We cannot knowforsure,but Bede does remarkthat traditional-secular
themes
were distastefulto him ("nil umquam frivoliet supervacui poematis facere
potuit.") Whateverhe did hear would have been composed in the traditional
mannerout of the standardreservoirof formulasand themesand in conformity
withthe traditionalmetricalpatternsaccordingto whichalone the singerscould
have sung. The story material, plots, would have been traditional,too; the
deedsofgreatfigures
ofthepast orconceivably,ifmorerarelyand morepassingly,
morecontemporaryevents comparableto the much later Maldon, thoughnone
such have come down to us in verse. In any event thereis no reason to assume
any sort of speciallypeasant-typepoetry,still less forimaginingthat a man of
Calman's social standingwouldnot have heartilyenjoyedsongsabout the great
and wealthyof long ago. To this presentday sociallysimplepeople quite cominterestin mattersreportedin the societycolumns
monlytake an extraordinary
ofnewspapers.The folk-tales(Kinder-undHausmdrchen), collectedby theGrimm
brothersfromHessian peasant womena centuryand a halfago, abound inroyalty
and in sumptuoussettings,though oftenwith curious and amusing blends of
courtlyelegance and rustic simplicity.It is in fact unnaturalto imaginethat
Caedman'slisteningexperiencebeforehis becominga practicingsingeras limited
or peculiarin any way. There is to be surefaultyand haltingAnglo-Saxonverse
(e.g., parts of the Finn Fragment,the disjointednarrativeof the Wife'sLament,
parts of some of the Metrical Charms) but its traditionis or aspiresto be identical withthe verybest; its mediocritypresumablymerelyreflectspoor performances by indifferent
singerswho in some cases have not quite rememberedthe
song.The Old-GermanLay ofHildebrand,composedin the same traditionand in
the same way as the Anglo-Saxonsongs,is similarlya technicallymiserableperformance.
S. ANGLO-SAXONPOETRY BEFORE CEDMAN

The language and the subject matterof the Hymn,as of the late poem Christ
and Satan previouslydiscussed,20
raises the questionofthe existenceof Christian
poetrybeforeCaedman'sday. The highlytraditional,formulaiclanguage of the
Hymninclu(desa numberof formulaswhichcannot be easily imaginedto have
been createdor used in pre-ChristianEngland, all withreferencesto the Deity:
Weard (la), Metodesmeahte(2a), Wuldor-fceder
heofon-ritees
(3a), cee Dryhten
(4a, 8a), Frea eall-mihti3(9b), and hdli3Scieppend (6b), the last only by chance
not representedelsewherein the poetry.There are eightreferencesto the Deity
in eighteenverses,makingup forty-four
plus per cent of the poem. It mightbe
argued that Caedmaninventedthese and the other formulasin his sleep, but
20 See SPECULUM, XXVIII

(1953), 454-458.

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Bede's Storyof Cadman

awake or asleep, iftrue,thiswould be miraculousindeed,sinceunderobservable

conditionsformulasare createdonlyslowlyand no one singereverinventsmany,
oftennone at all, findingthe available supply quite adequate forhis needs. But
dictionmakingpossible
muchpointsto an earlydevelopmentofa supplementary
Christianmatters
formulaicreferenceto the Deity and othercharacteristically
and consequentlyit is to be supposedthat Cadman had heardand learnedenough
to his purposein the Hymnand subsequentsongs.
of theseto be sufficient
4. THE MIRACLE: A RATIONAL INTERPRETATION

The numberof times that Bede speaks of Caedmanas having been divinely
aided both in the compositionof the Hymn,and by inference,his referencesto
Caedman'spoetic giftas a matterof divinegrace, makes quite clear that Bede
and almost surely the communityof Whitby viewed C.Tdman's suddenly acquired abilityto sing in public (or fromtheirpoint of view,perhaps,to sing at
all) as an authenticmiracle.2'It is not unlikelythat Bede in good measureincludedthe storybecause he viewedit as a miracleor at least highlysupernatural.
But the Middle Ages weregenerallyspeakingless criticalof miraclesthan is the
Churchtoday and thus it may be easier and morenaturalhere to seek fora rationalexplanationof the eventin question.
Accordingto Bede's reportCLedmanwas in the habit oflisteningto the singing
of Anglo-Saxon,and thereseems to have been a singingtraditionin the XYhitby
presumablyof songs on traditionalsubjects. It would furtherseem
community,
thathisfriendshad somenotionthathe could singifhe would,otherwisewhydid
they urge him to sing in turn?One does not urge a person to play the violinin
public if one knowsthat he has never taken a lesson or had the instrumentin
his hands. Nor can any Tom, Dick, or HIarrylivingin a communitywherethere
is oral singingsingifhe is not a singer.Here one mightsuspectthat CLedmanoccasionallysang when alone or thoughthe was alone, say, when out in the fields
tendinghis flockand that on one or moreoccasionshe had been overheard.For
21 Cp. C. Grant Loomis, "The Miracle Traditionsof the VenerableBede," SPECTLTLM,
xxi (1946),
404-418. On the wide-spreadstoryofthe giftofsongacquiredin one's sleep (ultimatelyperhapsbased
on experiencessimilarto Coedman's?)see A. H. Smith,op. cit. (note 2 above), p. 14 (with understandingcomment)and n. 2; also Magoun, "The Praefatioand VersusAssociatedwith Some OldSaxon Biblical Poems" in Mediaeval Studiesin Honor of JeremiahD. M. Ford (Cambridge,Massachusetts:Harvard UniversityPress,1948), p. 117 and n. 28, p. 135; thislatterstory,patentlymodelled
on Bede, has no independentvalue and tellsus nothingsubstantialabout any Old-Saxonsinger.The
jarlsskalds (?9),
Icelandic storyof the shepherdHallbjorn, told at the very end of Porleifs 6dttur
with the revenantskald porleifursubstitutingfor
offerssome interestinganalogies in stage-setting,
Caedman'sheavenlyvisitor(Gutni J6nsson,fslendingas6gur,viii [Reykjavik, 1947],233-234).
parallel but totallyunrelatedstoryof MoThe curiousreader is referredto the extraordinarily
hammed'sfirstrevelation(see Koran, SQirah96, 1-5) receivedfroman angel near Mecca about A.D.
609: "He was asleep or in a trancewhenhe heard a voice say: 'Read!' He said: 'I cannotread.' The
voice again said: 'Read!' He said: 'I cannotread.' A thirdtimethe voice, moreterrible,commanded:
'Read!' He said: 'What can I read?' The voice said: 'Read: In the name of thy Lord Who createth,
Createthman froma clot,'" etc., quoted fromMohammed Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of
the GloriousKoran: An ExplanatoryTranslation(New York: The New AmericanLibrary, 1951;
Allenand Unwin),pp. x, 445.

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the compositionof the Hymnand forhis subsequentsingingon Biblical and related themeshe must have commandedall necessaryformulas,unless one assumesa truemiracleor disbelievesBede's statement.This commandofformulas
and generaltechniqueafterthe dream can only mean a commandof the same
beforethe dream,in a word,that Caedmanhad been learningthem over a long
time,sincechildhoodor, ifa late starter,since earlymanhood.His real and sole
would seem then to have been only an unconquerablefearand consedifficulty
quent inabilityto sing beforean audience, to have sufferedin effecta kind of
he may have been like a stammererwho can speak quite clearly
stage-fright;
when alone. On the nightof the dream,as no doubt on otheroccasions,he obviouslywanteddesperatelyto be able to singin publicand clearlyexpressedthis
wishin the dream by, in effect,orderinghimselfto perform- aftersome (self-)
urging- beforethe heavenlyvisitor."Mihi cantarehabes," he makes the angel
in mindto singforme," as indeedhe did. The
say to him: "You have [something]
dreamamountedto a call forhelp and, as it was evolving,may well have had for
Caedmansomeofthe aspects ofa nightmare:he was beingmade (thoughby himself) to sing beforea stranger,an audience,if only of one. The dreammay have
workedlike shocktreatmentand have brokenthe block. In any event,afterthe
dream Caedmanwas able and willingto singand, fromall accounts,to sing fluentlyand well, thoughonly on the basis of materialassociated withpiety and
religion.
It willpresumablyneverbe possibleto interpretCaedman'sdreamcompletely
or to everybody'ssatisfactionbut any rational interpretation
of the "miracle"
would seem to point in the generaldirectionsuggestedhere.In any case thereis
no reason to doubt the essentialfactsreportedby Bede on the basis, direct or
indirect,ofWhitbytradition.
5. CAEDMAN'SULTIMATE REPERTORY

Caedman's historyas a singer subsequent to the dream is straightforward

enough. From the word go - we hear of no learningperiod or the like - he
evidentlywas a competentsingerofAnglo-Saxonverse ("nullus eum aequiparare
potuit").22 The day afterthe dreamand the compositionof the Hymnthe monks
of the same as a
told him a Bible storyand enjoinedupon him the versification
test. Ilere his procedurewas perhaps that of a not very experiencedsinger,at
least as far as public performanceswere concerned.Having masteredthe plot
materialor "fable" - he is said to have had a good memory- he needed or
at least wanted overnightto workout presumablythe organizationof the piece
it satisfactorily
thenextday. Unless it was, likethe Hymn,very
in orderto renider
short,he would not have memorizedit or been able to memorizea fixedtext.23
Such an intervalbetweenmasteringthe narrativematerialand a performance
22Alfred'sappraisal, quoted by William of Malmesbury;see n. 16, above.
23One may think instructivelyof the unletteredEgill Skalla-Grimsson'snocturnalcomposition

ofHbfuglausn(74 verses)undermagicalhandicaps,recitedin York in 937. This poem is shortbut not

shortenough,I should think,forEgill to have completelymemorizedit in our sense of the word,
thoughhe musthave planned it in considerabledetail at some time,whetheroriginallyintendedfor

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Bede's Storyof Cedman

beforean audience is apt to characterizeeitheran inexperiencedsingeror a perfectionist.Bede reportsan extensiveultimaterepertory,

thoughnothingbeyond
the rangeof good oral singers;24 thisincludedsongsbased on tales in the book of
Genesis,Exodus,and others,on thelifeofOur Lord (materialperhapson theorder
of ChristI and II), theteachingoftheApostles(materialperhapsembracingsuch
apocryphaltales as the Life of Saints Matthewand Andrewrepresentedin the
Andreas),the Last Judgment(cp. ChristIII and Christand Satan, as well as
separatetellingsofthismatter),and lots ofotherthings("et alia perplura").For
all this he had to have textsread aloud and/orexpoundedto him in English in
orderto masterthe narrative.This is not how mostoral singerslearntheirsongs,
since most songs in such a school are based on old traditionwhichthe singers
have mastered duringtheir period of absorptionand learning.But in Yugoslavia where,as in Anglo-SaxonEngland, letteredand unletteredpersonslive
side by side,singersnot infrequently
do learntheirsongsfromprintedsourcesin turn fromolder oral sources- read aloud to unletteredsingersby lettered
friends.Saban Rahmanovic,mentionedon pp. 55-56 above, is a case in point.
As forthe lengthand formof Caedman'ssongs,one can only say that these
to performance
must have varied considerablyfromperformance
and would depend almostentirelyon theaudiencefactor,i.e., howlonga givenaudiencemight
be able or willingto stay withhim. The singerof Exodus, forexample,devotes
twenty-ninetypographicallines (11.397-426) to the storyof Abraham'soffering
of Isaac, the singerof Genesis aobut threetimesas much space to the same story
(11.2846-2936).Similarly,the singerof the Exeter Book poem,the Giftsof Men,
devotes 113 lines and of The FortunesofMen some eightylines to God's varied
and unequal giftsto human beings,whileCynewulf(Christ II, 11.659-691) delines to the same topic, thoughall threepoems are treatvotes onlythirty-three
ing of the same matterin much the same way, includingthe rhetoricaluse of
initialanaphora (sum, sumum).25 This audiencecan be a live audiencein a tavern,
in the hall of an Anglo-Saxonnobleman,perhaps in his outbuildings,or it can
be a tape-recorderor a monasticscribe;the latterwas obviouslythe audience of
the performancesof such Anglo-Saxonsongs as have come down to us. A letteredsinger,say, Cynewulf,workingin the oral tradition26- probablythe only
way an Anglo-Saxoncould conceiveofcomposingnativeverse- mightofcourse
narrativeofthiscurious
EirikrbloZioxofYork orforKing IEthelst'anofEngland. For the surrounding
account of poetic compositionand the poem itselfsee Sigur6urNordal, Egils saga Skalla-Grimssonar
(cf. 59-60), Hit islenzkaFornritafelag,ii (Reykjavlk, 1933),pp. 181-192 (pp. 181 ad fin.: td ganga
heir i loftnokkurtlitit)or Gutni Jonsson,Islendingasogur,ii (Reykjavik, 1946), 186-197, and contextof the poem,in the late E. V. Gordon,An Introducvenientlyaccessible,thoughwithan inferior
tiontoOld Norse(Oxford,1927; reprintedin 1938), pp. 93-98. For an Englishversionwithan English
verse renderingof the poem see Lee M. Hollander, The Skalds (PrincetonUniversityPress, 1945),
pp. 64-73.
24 Good, matureoral singersmay possess repertoires
runninginto scoresof songs,i.e., stories;cp.
Comparetti,pp. 20, 336-337; Krohn,pp. 16 adfin.
see Bolte-Polivka on GrimmNo. 180 ("Die ungleichenKinder
25 On this wide-spreadfolk-motif
Evas").
26 See now Robert E. Diamond, The DictionoftheSignedPoems of Cynewulf
(unpublishedHarvard
thesis,1958), passim.

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dictate to himself,thoughthis would presumablybe an uncommonif not awkwardprocedure.

WHAT SONGS OF CAEDMANHAVE SURVIVED?

Froma sentimentalpointof viewit wouldbe pleasant to thinkthatapart from

the littleHymn,shortand easily memorized,we had othersongs or substantial
remnantsof songs by Caedman.Unless, however,the West-Saxontranslatorof
Bede is correctin his apparentlyentirelypersonalstatementthat the monksof
Whitbytook down Caxlman's compositionsfromdictation(ct his mu'e writon),
such would,
we presumablyhave nothingofthe sort.Our sole hope ofidentifying
in any event,lie in the survivalof a textcontainingat the beginningor end such
a statementas the "Primo cantavit Caedmonistud carmen,"made at the end of
the Hymnin the Moore manuscriptof Bede. Unless his compositions,i.e., given
performancesof his, were dictated duringhis life-timeand copies of these dictated copies had survived,therewould be no possibilitywhateverof his "works"
survivingin our senseofthe word;fororal poetryknowsnothingoffixityoftext,
sinceno songof any lengthcan be memorizedby a singerand each performance
of a given song will in wordingvary appreciably,oftenmarkedly,fromone perofthe "same"
performances
formanceto the next.Verbalsimilaritiesin different
singersworkingin
songs by different
song, like verbal recurrencesin different
the same generaltradition,will be due only to the fact that a singerwants to
expressthe same generalidea and as a matterof courseuses the same convenient
formulaor formulasto achieve this end. Thus, local singerswho admired Caedman's verses would in a sense have "learned by heart" his songs,that is, the
subjects and perhaps his general orderingof the narrative,but theirwording
would not and could not possiblyhave been his wording,thoughthey,especially
youngsingers,mighthave followedhis generaltechniqueratherclosely.In such
a way shreds,so to speak,of Caxlman's versemay lurkin the backgroundofthis
or that Anglo-Saxonpoem dealingwiththe themesCaxlmanis said to have sung
and impermanenceof orallycomposedand
about. Such, however,is the unfixity
orallytransmittedpoetrythat we shall almost surelynever be able to identify
theseshreds,ifindeedtheyexist.27
27 These last remarksbringto mindvariousattemptsof modernscholarsin variousways to reconstructOld-Germanicpoemsfromdigestsincorporatedby late Greekand Latin authorsand mediaeval
chroniclersin theirworks.Such materialcriesout to be used and has been put to most helpfuland
illuminatingpurposesin the comparativestudy of Germanicheroiclegend.Such resumes,however,
admit of no comparisonwitha summarywe mightmake, say, of the fifthAeneid,a book of Homer,
thisor that Kalevala runo,or a Serbo-Croatianheroicsonglyingbeforeus fixedin writingor in print.
Therewe would be digestinga "fixed"text.The writersmentionedabove, unlessperchancepracticing
singers,have almostsurelyordinarilytransmitteda summaryof a song heard long before,perhapsa
singlerecitationof it; or they may quite unconsciouslybe givingus a conflateversionof theirown
singers.Such materialis clearlyto be used
based on many hearingsof the storyby many different
with the greatestcircumspectionand with a fullunderstandingofits nature and presumablebackone can, forinstance,attach littlesignificanceexcept
ground.However interestingand entertaining,
as a jeu d'espritto such reconstructionsas Liobwins Dingfahrtin the charmingGerman of that
Monatsschrift,
skilled translatorof Old-Germanicverse,Felix Genzmer,in Germanisch-Romanische
xxxii (1951), 165-168,mentionedhere purelyby way of illustration.

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6O2,,

7. CONCLUSION

Bede's storytells one nothingabout the birthof Anglo-Saxonpoetryof any

kind,not even ofChristiannarrativeverse,and it makes no claim to furnishsuch
information.Bede does not even communicatethe Anglo-Saxontext of the
Hymn,furnishedus by later scribesafterhis death; nonethelessit is of great interestto have in a Bedan contextthe textof thisunpretentious,
veryshortpoem
of no greatoriginalityof conceptionthoughnicelyorganizedalong the lines of a
conventionallittledoxology.
What Bede does give us, however,is (as remarkedat the beginningof this
paper) of extraordinaryimportance,fromthe past, indeed, a unique pictureof
ofan oral singerlivingin a letteredcommunity.
part ofthe career,a case-history,
For the studentof the vast fieldof the oral poetryof unletteredpeoples Bede'R
chapteris a preciousdocument,an invaluablerecordfromthe past, Anglo-Saxon
or other.
HARVARDUNIVERSITY

CHART
N(uwe sculonherian heofon-ric'es
Weard,
Metodesmeahte and His mod-3ePanc,
weorcWuldor-faeder,
swa he wundragehwoes,
ce6eDryhten, or (var.ord)onstealde.
5 He aerest
(3e)scop ielda(var. eorban)bearnum
heofon
to hrofe hali3Scieppend;
J'amiddan-3eardmann-cynnes
Weard,
ceceDryhten aefter
teodefirum
foldan Freaeall-mihti3.
la Gen816 N(ume mae3hreowan;And 1517Nu 1p'meaht3ecnawan;Ele 511 N(u PI'
meaht3ehieran;
Bwf395N' 3e m6tongangan.lb Gen1363,1484,1744,2073;Exo 486
Weard;And52 heredeon heortan,
Dan 12,26; XSt 420 N(ui6 Pechalsie/ heofon-rices
91;Glc611,789;Met11,31;PPs 90,1;Ps 50,113
197,445,718;DrR
heofon-riesWeard;Ele
KtH 2; JdgII 70.2a XSt 352;And694;Dan 169Poethe woldeMetodes/ meahte3eliefa]
537 Metodesmeahta,658, Gen189 Metodesmeahtum.Cp. Dan 20 Metodesm0e3ens
2b Met31,19; cp.Gen(B
ciepe;Phx6 PurhMetodesmeaht;Met29,48 Metodescrmefte.
253sw1a
Bwf1729mannes
Gen93,1524,2341
mihiti3ne
/ on hismod-3epoht;
mod-3epanc;
3a Cp. Chr21'
2647mod-3epances
(instr.);Max I 123Pxerbipmannes/ mod-3epancas.
wundra(paes
3b Cp. frequent
mid PlnneWuldor-faeder;
Men 147 mid Wuldor-faeder.
fela(orworn)in Grein-Kohler.
4a Aza 128,Bwf108,Sol 251;PPs 53,4, 70,18,20,71,IC
casesnote:gen.sing.de
8. In inflected
73,17,78,1 etseq.;PsFr 5, 1, 2, 87,89,19; Cw,d
Brb16,Men12;c'ean Dryhtnes
Gen7, 1885;Chr396,711;Phx600;PPs 67,E
Dryhtnes
9,68,29; dat.sing.cecumDryhtne
Bwf2796,Jdg11 37; SmP 26; acc. sing.cf6neDryhtei
PPs 55, 9, 65, 1, 3, 7; aecanDryhtenBwf1692,1779,2330.4b Bwf2407;Rdl 3, 59 o
3escope
onstelle;XSt 113ordonstealdon.
5a Gen112Her restscop;Met20, 53 werest
Aza 128Paoet
oer3escop;also OrW38 Hwaet,onfrym4e
3escOp;Phx 84 Se hiton fryml
3escop;Gen1278JaHe'Adamscop.5b Gen2472;Chr937,Ord99(-a);Run76; cp.furthe
bearnumDan 6926,
XE
dryhtabearnumGen993,Men 220,Par 25, Glc 1103(-a);haelebe
398,581,Chr1591,Bwf2224(-a); leodabearnumChr1424;mannabearnumGen40Z

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Bede'8 Storyof Cadman

63

1554,PPs 135, 7, 144, 11; nippabearnumGen 1135(-a), 1284, Rdl 37, 6(-a), Bwf 1005(-a),
Men 196, Run 27, PPs 58, 5(-a).
6a No supportingevidence. 6b Cp. Grein-Kohlerforfrequentha1i3Dryhtenand Chr
417 milde Sceppend. 7a Dan 636 stod middan-3eard;Gen 986 Pes middan-3eard,1554
eall Pes middan-3eard;Glc 521 Paet he middan-3eard;Rdl 31, 1 Is Pes middan-3eard;
Wan 62 Swa Pes middan-3eard.Cp. frequentadv. gen. middan-3eardes,formingan
A-verse,e.g., Gen 136, 1206, 1378,and otherpoems. 7a Gen2758, 2896. 8a See 5a, above.
8b Cp. Gen469, 623 aefterlibban; Bwf 12, aeftercenned,2731 aefterwurde; And 182, Jul
197 aefterweortan; Rdl 39, 23 aeftergangeP.9a No supportingevidence.9b Gen 5, 116,
150, 173, 852, 904, 1359, 1427; Chr 1379; Jud 301; PPs 68, 14, 69, 6, 85, 17.

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