Introduction
In 657, a monastery was founded in Whitby, in the Kingdom of Northumbria. It gave employment to several labourers, including an elderly stable-hand named Caedmon who would do anything to avoid singing.
THE farmhands on the estates of the monastery at Whitby liked a song in the evening, but whenever the harp looked like coming his way, Caedmon would slip out and go to bed in the stables.
On one such occasion, a man appeared in his dreams and greeted him. ‘Caedmon’ he said, ‘sing to me’. Caedmon protested that he had left the company precisely because he could not sing, but his visitor insisted, saying: ‘Sing of the creation’. Suddenly, Caedmon’s heart and tongue stirred with a song in his native English, of the Beginning of days.*
Caedmon sang of the dawn of the world, praising Him who laid the measures of the earth, who stretched the line upon it, and fastened its foundations, and laid its corner stone, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.* When he awoke, he remembered his song, and more and more words kept coming unbidden to his lips.
The original is lost: Bede paraphrased it something like this, making it clear that the original was much longer:
We are now to praise the Maker of the heavenly kingdom, the power of the Creator and his counsel, the deeds of the Father of glory. How He, being the eternal God, became the author of all miracles, who first, as almighty preserver of the human race, created heaven for the sons of men as the roof of the house, and next the earth.
Versions in Old English go back to the eighth century, but these appear to be poetic translations of Bede’s paraphrase. See Wikipedia.
See Job 38.
Précis
Caedmon was an elderly groom in stables near the monastery at Whitby. One night (this was in the 7th century) he dreamt that a man came and asked him to sing, something which he always avoided doing. But his vistor insisted, and in his dream Caedmon spontaneously sang a hymn about the Creation, which he remembered even after he awoke. (60 / 60 words)
Caedmon was an elderly groom in stables near the monastery at Whitby. One night (this was in the 7th century) he dreamt that a man came and asked him to sing, something which he always avoided doing. But his vistor insisted, and in his dream Caedmon spontaneously sang a hymn about the Creation, which he remembered even after he awoke.
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Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: although, besides, may, not, since, until, whereas, who.
Word Games
Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
What made Caedmon go to bed early some nights?
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
Jigsaws Based on this passage
Express the ideas below in a single sentence. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Whitby monastery had a stables. The grooms liked to sing. Caedmon did not.