Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
Reading Caedmon at Christmas

Reading Caedmon at Christmas

Last updated on: December 25, 2017 at 10:38 am by Philip Jenkins

Reading Caedmon at Christmas 2017-12-25T10:38:39-04:00 Philip Jenkins

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Christmas is at once a feast of Creation and Incarnation, as the two stories are so intimately integrated in the Prologue to John’s Gospel. On Christmas Day, then, it seems appropriate to quote one of the great poems about the Creation, but this particular one has a special story attached to it. Not only is this a truly ancient poem, dating back some 1400 years, but it is regarded as one of the first literary works in the English language, and it is by the very first English author whose name we know. Here it is:

Now [we] must honor the guardian of heaven,

the might of the architect, and his purpose,

the work of the father of glory

as he, the eternal lord, established the beginning of wonders;

he first created for the children of men

heaven as a roof, the holy creator

Then the guardian of mankind,

the eternal lord, afterwards appointed the middle earth,

the lands for men, the Lord almighty.

Those opening words – Nū scylun hergan hefaenrīcaes uard – mark the beginning of English Christian culture. In more senses than one, this poem marks a new creation.

But beyond its ancient character, the poem also touches on many other themes that I have explored recently in this blog, especially about how the old Roman province of Britain (Celtic and Christian) became the new Anglo-Saxon England (Germanic and pagan), with its radically different language. The story involves some genuinely surprising exchanges and crossovers.

The story begins with one Caedmon, who probably around the 660s was a humble lay-brother in the monastic house of Whitby in Yorkshire. This was then part of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria. The town is a wonderful tourist destination to this day, though the monastic ruins now play second fiddle to memories of Count Dracula, but that is a digression. Through an angelic vision, Caedmon was encouraged to compose Christian poetry in Anglo-Saxon, of which we have some samples. According to the historian Bede, Caedmon later ranged widely over the Bible:

He sang the creation of the world, the origin of man, and all the history of Genesis, the departure of the children of Israel out of Egypt, their entrance into the promised land, and many other histories from Holy Scripture; the Incarnation, Passion, Resurrection of our Lord, and His Ascension into heaven; the coming of the Holy Ghost, and the teaching of the Apostles; likewise he made many songs concerning the terror of future judgement, the horror of the pains of hell, and the joys of heaven; besides many more about the blessings and the judgements of God.

The story is famous, but what is surprising here is Caedmon’s name, which is not Anglo-Saxon, but Celtic and British. I have discussed this before, but the familiar story of the fall of Roman Britain goes like this. The Anglo-Saxons invaded in the fifth century, the old British Celts were killed, conquered, or expelled – either overseas to Brittany, or else to the northern and western parts of Britain. The remaining Celtic British left virtually no trace on the English that developed in what became England, and that is a stark contrast to what happened in countries like France, Spain or Italy, where the invading Germans ended up speaking languages derived from the Latin of their subject peoples. (Just to reiterate that the British were Celtic and Roman, the English were Germanic – which is why it really annoys modern Brits when anyone refers to King Arthur as a ruler of the “English.” It’s like calling Sam Houston a famous Mexican).

Something different happened in Britain, though historians disagree exactly what that was, and why it occurred. Some think the British themselves adopted Anglo-Saxon because it was the language of their superiors, in a process that some call elite emulation. Others think the British were so despised and inferior that they existed in a kind of Germanic-dominated apartheid state, as existed in white-ruled South Africa, so their language was simply wiped out.

So here we have Caedmon, who appears to be a lower-class person lacking education, and Bede gives no suggestion that he was anything other than a regular Anglo-Saxon by race or language. But look at his name. It is identical with the Celtic name Catamanus, or its later Welsh version Cadfan, and there were some very famous British incumbents of that name around this time.

By far the most significant was one Catamanus who ruled the powerful north Welsh kingdom of Gwynedd from his fortress on the island of Anglesey. Although we know little about his rule or character, we have a grave memorial erected on his death around 625, and it is stunning. It commemorates “Catamanus rex sapientisimus opinatisimus omnium regum” (King Catamanus, wisest and most renowned of all kings). These titles sound like they had come straight from the flowery diplomatic language of the Byzantine empire (after making due allowance for translation from that empire’s Greek). Very likely, the language does reflect links between Celtic Britain and the Empire around that time, as indicated by the presence of Mediterranean pottery and trade objects in British excavations. This is pure speculation, but did the phraseology actually come from the pen of some Byzantine official trying to establish contact with kings on the distant periphery of what had once been the Western Roman Empire? Did that inscription start as the opening of a diplomatic letter? I have written elsewhere about British/Mediterranean ties in precisely this era, when Welsh kings named their sons after the contemporary Byzantine emperor Maurice.

I do make one suggestion. In the later sixth century, the Byzantine Empire had close relations with the Merovingian Frankish dynasty in Gaul, and as allies of the emperor Maurice, the Franks repeatedly invaded Italy to fight the Lombards. But the Franks were becoming too powerful in their own right, and definitely had their own ambitions in Italy and the larger Mediterranean world. As a counterweight, it is quite likely that the Byzantines should have sought allies against the Franks in the closely linked territories of western Britain and Brittany, so a diplomatic venture here too is plausible. This would have been very standard operating procedures for an empire seeking to influence matters far beyond its frontiers. If Byzantine envoys could dabble in the affairs of what we now call France, why not Britain?

Catamanus was succeeded by his son, Cadwallon, who may have been the one who erected that flowery tablet. In the 630s he went on to win an astonishing victory against the mighty English kingdom of Northumbria. Again according to Bede, he was not content just to annex the land, but he fought a genocidal race war, and made a systematic attempt to exterminate its Anglo-Saxon peoples. Cadwallon was finally defeated and killed in 634 at a battle fought near Hadrian’s Wall.

But to get back to Caedmon. The Celtic name must mean that he came from that British ancestry, as it is inconceivable that an Anglo-Saxon family might have chosen the name out of an imaginary Celtic baby book. This was simply not an age when families named their children after contemporary celebrities, and certainly not ones from rival neighboring states. (Don’t tell me about William Tecumseh Sherman).

We might go further and suggest that Caedmon’s family must have fallen dramatically in status. Celtic names beginning with Cata- (war or battle) generally imply aristocratic or royal status, as in the case of kings Catamanus (Battle Horse), or Cadwallon (originally Katuwellaunos or Battle Leader). So why do we find the name Caedmon held by a lowly lay brother and cow herd? Might he or his family have come to Northumbria as a war prisoner or hostage? Or was he from the local Celtic peoples in Yorkshire? We just don’t know.

Also interesting is just when he received his name. What little we know of Caedmon is that he was well on in years before he received his poetic gift. In the context of the time, that could mean (say) forty years, but that would virtually certainly mean that he was born in the time of the famous king Catamanus. Was he even named after him, maybe implying some distant kinship?

Then there is the question of just where he received his Christian knowledge. Bede stresses how utterly uneducated he was, and unfamiliar with any religious or Biblical teaching, but let’s explore that. Bede wants to tell a miracle tale, and that only works if he makes Caedmon a cultural and educational blank slate. In reality, he might not have been. If Caedmon was British, and especially if there was some kind of aristocratic background, even a generation or so before, then his family would certainly have been Christian, and for centuries beforehand. Now, that Christian background need not necessarily have meant much in terms of his actual knowledge or skill. But I just offer the possibility that Caedmon was bringing some half-buried family traditions to bear in his verse. Bede explicitly says that English was his native tongue, but he makes no comment about whether Caedmon spoke any other language, such as British.

By the way, I talk about what Bede thought or believed. In fact, he was wholly guided by what he received from local sources and correspondents, in this case in Whitby, and we can’t be sure how accurately or fully they were recording things.

However we answer these various questions, Caedmon does contribute to that long standing debate about how Britain became England. Here, for certain, we have an apparent British person of Celtic stock and name, who not only speaks Anglo-Saxon as his native tongue, but composes in it, leaving no trace of any Celtic antecedents.

Finally, I offer one other cross-cultural connection from roughly this same time period. In the 680s, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex had a tough warrior king named Caedwalla, who would have lived from roughly 659 to 689. His name is exactly the same as that of the (British/Welsh) Cadwallon I mentioned earlier, although Bede does not suggest that the Wessex prince was in any sense “non-English.” This is only one of several weirdly British names that appear in the royal house of that otherwise impeccably Anglo-Saxon state. I honestly doubt that anyone deliberately chose to name an Anglo-Saxon princeling after a British king whose goal in life appears to have been exterminating the Anglo-Saxons. Rather, the name just stemmed from an old British/Welsh aristocratic family which was interbred with the ruling house of Wessex, and possibly the Gwynedd royal line that produced the original Cadwallon. As in Caedmon’s humble case, the British bloodline was flowing in that house.

So yes, British and English, pagans and Christians, were far more intertwined than we might otherwise suspect. It would be oddly appropriate if this one man, who stands at the beginning of “English” culture, should himself had exemplified that process of interbreeding and cultural interaction. Or as Kipling almost wrote, “And so was Britain born.”

Another English-born writer, Denise Levertov wrote a fine poem about Caedmon and the moment of his inspiration.

Previous Post

December 22, 2017

God’s Other Son

Next Post

December 26, 2017 Why the Second Day of Christmas Matters

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abolitionism Abortion Abraham Joshua Heschel Abraham Kuyper Abraham Lincoln Academia Activism Adam Renberg Advent Adventist africa African American Religion Agnes Howard Albert Camus American History American Religious History American Revolution American West Anabaptists Ancient History Andrea Turpin Andrei Tarkovsky Anglicanism Annales Ansley Lillian Quiros anti-Catholicism Antisemitism Anxious Bench apologetics Apparitions Arash Azizi Archaeology archives art Artificial Intelligence Asia Asian Americans Augustine Authors Bad Bunny Baptism Baptists Barack Obama Battle of Hastings Benjamin Franklin Bernard-Henri Levy Beth Allison Barr Beth Moore Bethany Mannon Bible Bill Cunningham Billy Graham Black Music Bob Dylan Body Boenhoffer Books Breastfeeding Bruce Springsteen C.S. Lewis Calvinism Cancel Culture Capitalism Carmelites Catholicism Cedric Robinson Cesar Chavez Charismaticism charity Charles Dickens Charles Lindbergh Che Guevara Chicago Children Chinese Christianity Chris Gehrz Christ Christian death Christian Higher Education Christian life Christian Nation Christian Nationalism Christianity Today Christmas Church life Church Practice cinema Civil Religion Civil Rights Movement Civil War civility Classics Climate Change Cold War Colonial Mexico colonialism Comer Communism community complementarianism Conference on Faith and History Congregationalism Conspiracies Conspiracy Conversion Narratives Coronavirus Costa Rica Council of Nicaea Covid-19 Creation Critical Race Theory Crusades Culture culture wars Daniel K. Williams David Barton David Swartz Death Ways death with dignity DEI democracy Democratic Party Devotion Digital Age Diplomacy discipleship diversity Donald Trump Drama Dua Lipa Early Church early modern Early modern Catholicism Easter Eastern Christianity economic exploitation Education elections Elie Wiesel Elizabeth II Elizabeth Taylor emotions Empire Engineering England enslavement Entertainment Episcopal Church Erica Ramirez eschatology Eurocentrism Evangelicalism Evangelicals Exegesis Family Feminism Film Flannery O'Connor folk music Food Foreign Policy founding fathers Franciscans Franciscus Junius fundamentalism Funerals G.K. Chesterton Gender Genocide genre geography George W. Bush George Washington George Whitefield Global Christianity Global church Grief Guadalupe Guest Post guest post gun control gun violence Gustavo Gutierrez Hamid Dabashi Harold John Ockenga Harvest Hate Hawaiian Christianity Healing health care Heather Cox Richardson Hell Heresy Hermeneutics Higher Education Hinduism Hippocratic oath Historical Fiction Historical Methodology Historical Profession Historical Profession Historical Theology Historical Thinking historiography Holidays Holocaust horror movies Human rights Humanitarian Work humanities Hummingbirds Hungary hymns Imago Dei Immigration Injustice Interviews Iran Islam Islamophobia Israel Ivan's Childhood Jacob Randolph James Bratt Janine Giordano Drake Japanese history Japanese Literature Jean Paul Sartre Jesse Miranda Jesus Jesus Christ Jimmy Carter Joan Baez Joan Didion Joanne Freeman João B. Chaves Joao Chaves Joey Cochran John Calvin John Fea John Tillotson John Turner Johnny Cash Jonathan Edwards Jonathan Tran Joseph Smith Josh Howerton Journalism Jr. Judaism Jürgen Moltmann Just War Justice Justin Brierley Karl Barth Katelyn Beaty koi ponds Kris Kristofferson Kristin Kobes Du Mez Latin American Religious History Latino Americans Lectio Divina Leisure Lent Leonard Cohen liberal arts liberalism Liberation Theology Linda Ronstadt Lisa Clark Diller Literature Lou Reed Lynchings Lynneth Miller Renberg Mainline Protestantism Malcolm Foley Marilyn Monroe Maritime history Mark Noll Marriage Martin Luther Martin Luther King Martyrdom Marxism Mary Masih Alinejad mass shootings material culture medieval Christianity Medieval Ethiopia Melissa Borja memory Mennonites Mental Health Mental Illness Methodism Mexican Americans Mexicans Mike Madrid Miles Mullin Min Jin Lee Miscarriage Missionaries Mister Rogers Mitt Romney modernity Monasticism Mormonism Motherhood Mothers of the Church Moving Music Musicals Nadya Williams Nahua Christianity Native Americans Natsume Sōseki New Contributor New England New Year New York Nico Non-Violent Protest Orthodoxy pacifism Paleo Evangelicals Palestinians Parenting Patti Smith Paul Kingsnorth Pedro Calderón de la Barca Pentecostalism Philip Jenkins Phillis Wheatley physician-assisted suicide pilgrimage Pilgrims pluralism Plutocracy Poetry Politics Pope Francis Pope Leo XIV post-modernism prayer preaching Presbyterians prosperity gospel Protest Public history Publishing Puritans purity culture Quakers race Race Massacres Racial Capitalism racial reconciliation racialization Racism Raha Bahloulipour Re-Enchantment reading Reformation Refugees religion and the university religion and war Religious Freedom Religious Nones Religious Pluralism Religious Symbols religious violence Republican Party Revival Rita Coolidge Ritual Roger Williams Roman Catholic church Royalty Russell Moore same-sex marriage Sarah Irving-Stonebraker Scandinavia Science Science and Technology Scopes trial Scriptural Interpretation secularism Selena Quintanilla seminary Seventh-Day Adventists sexual morality Sexuality Sikhs Silence slaveholders theology Slavery Slavoj Zizek social justice Social Media Southern Baptist Convention Southern Religion Spain Spiritual Autobiography Spiritual but not religious Spiritual Discipline Sports Stanley Hauerwas Suffering Summer Camps Sunday Night Odds and Ends Supernatural Supreme Court Syriac Christianity Tal Howard Taylor Swift Teaching Technology Television Thanksgiving The Beatles The Mission theater TheoBros Theology Thomas Dixon Thomas Jefferson Thomas Kidd Thomas Merton Tim Gloege Tim Walz Tom Holland Tourism tradition Tragedy Translation Transnationalism Travel Trump Ukraine Uncategorized Unitarians United Methodist Church US History Vanessa Chan Velvet Underground Verónica A. Gutiérrez Veronica Gutierrez Vikings Violence Virgin Mary Virtue Virtue ethics Visions Voting War WCTU Wendell Berry Westminster Assembly White Evangelicalism Wildfires Winnie the Pooh Witches women Women in Ministry Women's and Gender Studies Work Worship writing Yasunari Kawabata Zena Hitz

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What was Moses' father's name?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Apollos Abiathar Amram Arron