Cædmon's Hymn in Old English
This is the oldest English poem whose poet we know by name. Bede tells the story in his history of the English church, finished in 731: Cædmon, a cowherd at the abbey of Whitby, could not sing, until a figure in a dream told him to. He woke with these nine lines. The text here is the West Saxon version.
Learn to read this in Old English
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The text and translation
Nu sculon herigean heofonrices weard meotodes meahte ond his modgeþanc weorc wuldorfæder swa he wundra gehwæs ece drihten or onstealde
Now we must praise the guardian of heaven's kingdom, the might of the Measurer and his mind's purpose, the work of the Father of glory, as he, the eternal Lord, established the beginning of each wonder.
Word by word
- Nu
- now
- sculon
- (we) must
- herigean
- praise
- heofonrices
- of heaven's kingdom
- weard
- guardian
- meotodes
- of the Measurer (God)
- meahte
- might
- ond
- and
- his
- his
- modgeþanc
- mind's purpose
- weorc
- the work
- wuldorfæder
- of the Father of glory
- swa
- as
- he
- he
- wundra
- of wonders
- gehwæs
- of each
- ece
- eternal
- drihten
- Lord
- or
- the beginning
- onstealde
- established
He ærest sceop eorðan bearnum heofon to hrofe halig scyppend þa middangeard moncynnes weard ece drihten æfter teode firum foldan frea ælmihtig
He, the holy Creator, first shaped heaven as a roof for the children of earth; then the guardian of mankind, the eternal Lord, the almighty Lord, afterwards adorned middle-earth, the earth, for men.
Word by word
- He
- He
- ærest
- first
- sceop
- shaped
- eorðan
- of earth
- bearnum
- for the children
- heofon
- heaven
- to
- as
- hrofe
- a roof
- halig
- holy
- scyppend
- Creator
- þa
- then
- middangeard
- middle-earth
- moncynnes
- of mankind
- weard
- guardian
- ece
- eternal
- drihten
- Lord
- æfter
- afterwards
- teode
- adorned
- firum
- for men
- foldan
- the earth
- frea
- lord
- ælmihtig
- almighty
What to notice
- middangeard means “middle-earth”, the human world between heaven and below. Tolkien, a professor of Old English, took his Middle-earth from this word.
- meotodes meahte shows how the verse works. Old English poems do not rhyme. They bind each line together by repeating the first sound of its strongest words.
- ece drihten (“the eternal Lord”) appears twice. Poets kept stock phrases ready that fit the rhythm, a sign of a poetry that was sung before it was written.
Read it yourself
Urling teaches the words in this text first, so that when you reach it you can read it in Old English. It uses short lessons, and nothing has to be memorised from a list.
Learn to read this in Old English
Free, no account. Your first line takes about three minutes.
Sources
Cædmon's Hymn, West Saxon version, ed. Bright, An Anglo-Saxon Reader (1917). Public domain.
Text licence: Public domain.
Language pack licence: Texts public domain / CC BY-SA 4.0; annotation CC BY-SA 4.0.
Texts: Caedmon's Hymn, Beowulf lines 1-11, Cnut's proclamation of 1020, The Battle of Maldon lines 312-313, The Wanderer lines 1-7 and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entry for 793 (all public domain); the Lord's Prayer in Early West Saxon as standardised in Wikipedia's 'Old English' article (CC BY-SA 4.0). Wulf and Eadwacer: W. J. Sedgefield, An Anglo-Saxon Verse-Book (1922), pp. 39-40, public domain; transcribed against the printed pages. Tagging and glosses: AI (Claude; Codex for Wulf and Eadwacer), checked against Wiktionary; not yet reviewed by a person. Additional passages carry their own source credits.
The introduction and notes on this page were written by Claude (AI). Word glosses are AI-assisted, and so is the English unless the source above names another translator.