Literatura Inglesa I; Task The Venerable Bede & “Caedmon’s Hymn”
Read pages 29-32 (Norton) and answer the following questions:
1. Why does the Venerable Bede identify Caedmon’s language (English) as
“his own”, and not “mine/ our own” (p. 30)?
He recognises Caedmon's language as his own because he received the gift of
creating this way of writing heavenly.
2. How is the conflict between Paganism and Christianity reflected in the
text? In other words, how is the social tension or distance between the
clergy and the peasant laity reflected in the text?
It is reflected in the case of the cowherd, when he was about to sing in the
feasts, but he felt no one could really hear him, because his song was religious,
while theirs were vain and idle terms.
3. Do we learn details of life among the Anglo-Saxon-speaking peasants who
live outside the monastery walls? If so, which are them?
He was an illiterate, and it was really difficult for an employee to get into
a upper standard.
4. Do you think Caedmon lied to his literate interrogators when he told them
he never had learned any songs from the secular tradition? If so, why?
I think it can be true that maybe he got influence from his workmen and he
used this skill to get recognision.
5. Identify the various poetic devices (i.e. royal epithets, kennings,
alliteration, caesura, style, etc.) which appear in "Caedmon’s Hymn" (pp.
31).
- Caesura in the middle of each verse
Alliteration: 'meotodes meahte and his modgepanc'
-Royal Epithets: Heaven-Kingdom, Eternal Lord
- Epithets like Weard (Guardian), Meotod (Measurer), Wuldor-Faeder (Glory
Father), Drihten (Lord), Scyppend (Creator), Frea (Master)
-Kennings: middle-earth, mind-plans, heaven-kingdom, the glory- father.
Style: religious
6. Regarding translation, consider carefully Bede’s comment on the problem
of translating poetry (p. 31). What makes poetry harder to translate than
prose? What is lost when translating poetry which costs the translation
some of the original’s “beauty and dignity”?
Poetry is harder to translate because of the rhythm and sense. Maybe rethorical
devices are lost when we translate poetry into another language, and the sense
