Īnalogues to the story of Caedmon have been cited with such frequency in the scholarly literature as to confirm that, whatever else it may be, this tale is a natural magnet for specialists in comparative religion, folklore, and mythology. In the current critical climate there is no need to belabour the point that Bede’s miracle tale is best read as an example of “legendary history”–that is, history as shaped into memorable forms. Whatever Bede’s motives were in telling the story of Caedmon and his Hymn, his account can be read as an origin myth for two related activities: first, the use of native English verse to celebrate Christian themes and second, the use of the technology of writing to record native poetry. 673-735) in book 4, chapter 24 of his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (Colgrave and Mynors 1969, 414-21), is of exceptional interest for the light it has been thought to shed on Anglo-Saxon literary history, or on the early mythography of that topic. The story of Caedmon’s poetic inspiration, as told by the Venerable Bede (ca. His account of Caedmon involves much mythmaking, and it is best read as an example of the storyteller’s art.

Bede’s monastic milieu was not impervious to oral culture, it seems. Moreover, he added the story of Caedmon’s later life and pious death. Naturally, Bede turned this tale-type to his own purposes by emphasising devotional features that are not a normal part of the tale. Clinching this connection is the motif that Caedmon, a lowly cowherd, is called by name by his mysterious interlocutor. The plot of a tale well known in modern Irish and Scottish tradition, however, “The Man Who Had No Story” (Irish type 2412B), resembles the first part of Bede’s chapter so closely as to suggest that Bede shaped his account under the influence of this narrative pattern, which must, therefore, be assumed to be of some antiquity.

Bede’s Caedmon, “The Man Who Had No Story”Īlthough various analogues have been cited to Bede’s account of the poet Caedmon, none are very close.

Bede's account of the poet caedmon