beowulf_original

Cædmon's Hymn is a short Old English poem originally composed by Cædmon, in honour of God the Creator. It survives in a Latin translation by Bede in his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum and in vernacular versions written down in several manuscripts of Bede's Historia.

Like many Old English and Anglo-Latin pieces, it was designed to be sung aloud and was never physically recorded by Cædmon himself, but was written and preserved by other literate individuals. The Hymn itself was composed between 658 and 680, recorded in the earlier part of the 8th century. The Hymn is Cædmon's sole surviving composition.

The following Old English text is a normalized reading of M (mid-8th century; Northumbria), arguably the oldest extant copy.

  nu scylun hergan     hefaenricaes uard
  metudæs maecti     end his modgidanc
  uerc uuldurfadur     swe he uundra gihwaes
  eci dryctin     or astelidæ
  he aerist scop     aelda barnum
  heben til hrofe     haleg scepen.
  tha middungeard     moncynnæs uard
  eci dryctin     æfter tiadæ
  firum foldu     frea allmectig[7]

  Nunc laudare debemus auctorem regni caelestis,
  potentiam creatoris, et consilium illius
  facta Patris gloriae: quomodo ille,
  cum sit aeternus Deus, omnium miraculorum auctor exstitit;
  qui primo filiis hominum
  caelum pro culmine tecti
  dehinc terram custos humani generis
  creavit.
  omnipotens
  

  Now [we] must honour the guardian of heaven,
  the might of the architect, and his purpose,
  the work of the father of glory[b]
  as he, the eternal lord, established the beginning of wonders;
  he first created for the children of men[c]
  heaven as a roof, the holy creator
  Then the guardian of mankind,
  the eternal lord, afterwards appointed the middle earth,
  the lands for men,[d] the Lord almighty.