Bede's
Strategy in Paraphrasing Cædmon's Hymn
Daniel Paul O'Donnell,
University of Lethbridge
In Book 4, Chapter 24 of the Historia ecclesiastica, Bede provides a Latin
translation of Cædmon's first song:
Nunc laudare debemus
auctorem regni caelestis, potentiam Creatoris et consilium illius, facta
Patris gloriae: quomodo ille, cum sit aeternus Deus, omnium miraculorum
auctor extitit, qui primo üliis hominum caelum pro culmine tecti,
dehinc terram Custos humani generis omnipotens creauit.
(Now we must praise the Maker of the heavenly kingdom, the power of the
Creator and his counsel, the deeds of the Father of glory and how He,
since he is the eternal God, was the Author of all marvels and first created
the heavens as a [gable of the] roof for the children of men and then,
the almighty Guardian of the human race, created the earth.)
In sixteen copies of the Historia, including the two earliest-known witnesses
(Cambridge, University Library Kk. 5. 16 [M] and St. Petersburg, National
Library of Russia [formerly Leningrad, M.E. Saltykov-Schedrin Public Library],
lat. Q. v. I. 18 [P]), Bede's Latin "paraphrase " is accompanied by an Old
English version of what is clearly intended to be the same text:
Nu scilun herga hefenric¾s uard
metud¾s mehti, and his modgithanc,
uerc uuldurfadurÑsue he uundra gihu¾s,
eci dryctin, or astelid¾.
5 He ¾rist scop aeldu barnum
hefen to hrof¾, halig sceppend;
tha middingard, moncynn¾s
uard,
eci dryctin, ¾fter tiad¾
Þrum foldu, frea allmehtig.
(Now we must honor the Guardian of the kingdom of heaven, the might of
the Creator, and his intent, the work of the Father of gloryÑas he, the
eternal Lord, established the beginning of each of wondrous things. He,
the holy Creator, Þrst made heaven as a roof for the children of men;
then the Guardian of mankind, the eternal Lord, the Lord almighty, afterwards
appointed the middle earth, the land, for men.)
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