The HyperTexts
Cædmon's Hymn: a Modern English Translation of the Old English
(Anglo-Saxon) Poem
"Cædmon's Hymn" was composed sometime between 658 and 680 AD and appears
to be the oldest extant poem in the English language. According to the
Venerable Bede (673-735), Cædmon was an illiterate herdsman who was given the
gift of poetic composition by an angel. In the original poem, hardly a word is
recognizable as English because Cædmon was writing in a somewhat anglicized form of
ancient German. The word "England" harkens back to Angle-land; the Angles were a
Germanic tribe, as were the Saxons and Jutes. Nevertheless, by Cædmon's time the foundations of English poetry
were being laid, particularly in the areas of accentual meter and alliteration.
Anglo-Saxon poets, called "scops," were considered to be "makers" (as in William Dunbar's poem "Lament for the
Makaris"), and poetry was considered to have a divine origin, so Cædmon's poem may
express a sort of affinity between the poet and his God.
Cædmon's Hymn (circa 658-680 AD)
loose translation/interpretation by
Michael R. Burch
Humbly we honour heaven-kingdom's Guardian,
the Measurer's might and his mind-plans,
the goals of the Glory-Father. First he, the Everlasting Lord,
established earth's fearful foundations.
Then he, the First Scop, hoisted heaven as a roof
for the sons of men: Holy Creator,
mankind's great Maker! Then he, the Ever-Living Lord,
afterwards made men middle-earth: Master Almighty!
Translator's Notes: "Cædmon's Hymn" is one of the oldest surviving examples of
Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse. Below, I have indicated the alliteration in my
translation, with underscores:
Humbly we honour
heaven-kingdom's
Guardian, [n, h, g, d]
the Measurer's might
and his
mind-plans, [m, a]
the goals of the Glory-Father.
First he, the Everlasting
Lord, [g, f, l]
established
earth's
fearful
foundations.
[d, e, s, f]
Then he, the
First Scop,
hoisted
heaven
as a roof [h, e, s, a]
for the sons of men, Holy Creator,
[e, s, r]
mankind's
great
Maker! Then he, the
Ever-Living
Lord, [m, n, e, l]
afterwards
made men
middle-earth:
Master Almighty!
[m, t, r]
In defense of my interpretation that Caedmon may have
regarded God as a fellow Poet-Creator, I will point out that the original poem
employs the words scop and haleg scepen. Anglo-Saxon poets were called
scops. The term
haleg scepen seems to mean something like "Holy Poet" or "Holy
Creator/Maker" because poets were considered to be creators and makers.
Also the verb tīadæ has been said to mean
something like "creatively adorned." So I don't
think it's that much of a stretch to suggest that a Christian poet may have
seen his
small act of creation as an imitation of the far greater acts of creation of
his Heavenly Father.
As in the original poem, each line of my translation has a caesura: a brief
pause denoted by white space. In each line, there are repeated
vowel/consonant sounds. This alliteration gives alliterative verse its name. The
original poem is also accentual verse, in that each line has four strong
stresses, and the less-stressed syllables are not counted as they are in most
other forms of English meter (such as iambic pentameter). My translation is not
completely faithful to the original rules. For instance, I have employed a
considerable amount of internal alliteration (which gives me more flexibility in
the words I can employ). And some of my lines contain more than four stresses,
although I think there are still four dominant stresses per line. For instance,
in the first line: HONour, HEAVen, KINGdom's GUARDian. In the second line:
MEASurer's, MIGHT, MIND-PLANS. And so on. I don't think the technique is
all-important. The main questions are whether the meaning is clear, and whether
the words please the ear. Only you, the reader, can decide that, and you don't
need a high-falutin' critic to tell you what you like!
I believe the poem is "biblical" in its vision of creation. According to
the Bible, the earth was set on an immovable foundation by the hand of God.
(Little did the ancient writers know that the earth is actually a spinning globe
whizzing through space at phenomenal speeds!) We see this foundation in line
four. Next, in line five, we see the hand of God creating the heavens above,
where according to the Bible he then set the sun, moon and stars in place. (The
ancient writers again got things wrong, saying that the earth existed first, in
darkness, and that the sun, moon and stars were created later; we now know that
the earth's heavier elements were created in the hearts of stars, so the stars
existed long before the earth. The writers of Genesis even said that plants grew
before the sun was formed, but of course they had never heard of
photosynthesis.) The poem's last line sounds a bit more Germanic or Norse to me,
since Middle Earth is a concept we hear in tales of Odin and Thor (and later in
the works of J. R. R. Tolkien). But that makes sense because when Saint
Augustine of Canterbury became the first Christian missionary to evangelize
native Britons, I believe it was the policy of the Roman Catholic Church to
incorporate local beliefs into the practice of Christianity. For instance,
because sun gods were worshiped in Rome, the Sabbath day became Sun-day, and the
birth of Christ became December the 25th (the day the winter sun is
"resurrected" and the days begin to lengthen, heralding spring). So in northern
climes we would expect to see some "fusion" of Norse and Germanic myths with
Christianity. For instance, there was never a mention of "hell" in the Hebrew
Bible; the Hebrew language did not even have a word that meant "hell" at the
time the books of the Old Testament were written. The closest Hebrew word,
Sheol, clearly means "the grave" and everyone went there when they died,
good and bad. The Greek word Hades also means the grave, and likewise
everyone went there when they died. Hades had heavenly regions like the
Elysian Fields and Blessed Isles and thus was obviously not hell! "Hell" is a
Norse term. If this subject interests you―for instance if
someone has said you are in danger of "hell" and need to be "saved" from it―you
many want to read my simple, logical proof that
There Is No Hell in the Bible.
Here is the original Old English/Anglo-Saxon poem and a word-by-word literal
translation:
Nū scylun hergan hefaenrīcaes Uard,
Now let's honor
heaven's Guardian
metudæs maecti end his mōdgidanc,
(the)
measurer's might and his mode/method
to-be-thanked-for/praised
uerc Uuldurfadur, suē hē uundra gihwaes,
(the)
work (of the) Glory-Father and his wonders praiseworthy (which)
ēci dryctin ōr āstelidæ
(the) Eternal Lord established in the beginning.
hē ǣrist scōp aelda barnum
He (the) first scop/poet (created for) people-children/the sons of men
heben til hrōfe, hāleg scepen.
heaven as roof (our) holy creator/poet!
Thā middungeard moncynnæs Uard,
Then middle-earth mankind's Guardian
eci Dryctin, æfter tīadæ
(our) eternal Lord afterwards creatively adorned (with)
firum foldu, Frēa allmectig.
firm earth (our) Father almighty!
Here's a slightly less literal translation that still seems faithful to the
original poem:
Cædmon's Hymn (circa 658-680 AD)
loose translation/interpretation by
Michael R. Burch
Humbly let us honour heaven-kingdom’s Guardian,
the Measurer's might and his mind-plans:
the goals of the Glory-Father. First he, the
Eternal Lord,
eminently established earth’s fearful foundations.
Then he, the First Scop, hoisted heaven as a roof
for the sons of men: Holy Creator,
Maker of mankind. Then he, the
Ever-Living Lord,
afterwards made men middle-earth: Master
Almighty!
Related Pages:
The Seafarer
The HyperTexts