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.

Caedmon’s new-found gift for composing hymns was so overwhelming that he asked Hild, Abbess of the monastery where he worked, for advice. She took him in to the monastery, where he continued to turn the Scriptures into songs until the day he died, quietly passing away just as the chants of Night Prayer were beginning (which he seemed to expect).

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