Old English Sounds Good Read, But It's Even Better Sung: Caedmon's Hymn

While studying Old English under the tutelage of Robert Stanton at Boston College (yes, there are people that do that, and no, Chaucer isn't old enough!), I discovered some great texts just begging to be sung.  One of these, "Caedmon's Hymn," is a 7th-century hymn praising the Creator.

According to the Venerable Bede, Caedmon was a 7th-century monk who learned to compose liturgical poems in a dream.  "Caedmon's Hymn" is his only surviving manuscript.  While I can't claim the same mode of inspiration as Caedmon, I can say that Caedmon's text inspired me enough to set it to music.  And so I did.

Thanks and praise to Prof. Stanton, too.  

You're one of the most wonderful teachers I've ever had.

Please comment and share if you like what you hear, and check out my other posts!

"Caedmon's Hymn" (Lyrics below)

MaryAnne Mathews and Maria Morris, Soprano

Mary Lynn Isaacs and Betsy Henessey, Alto

Paul Schutz and Jamie Morris, Tenor

Mark Valenzuela, Stephen McCallister, and Joe Birkhead, Bass

The West Saxon version reads:

Nu sculon herigean       heofonrices weard,
meotodes meahte          and his modgeþanc,
weorc wuldorfæder,      swa he wundra gehwæs,
ece drihten,                   or onstealde.
He ærest sceop            eorðan bearnum
heofon to hrofe,            halig scyppend;
þa middangeard            moncynnes weard,
ece drihten,                   æfter teode
firum foldan,                 frea ælmihtig.

(That doesn't look like English at all, does it?)

Here it is in modern English:

Now let us praise the guardian of heaven

the might of the Creator, and his thought,

the work of the Father of glory, how the Eternal Lord

established each of the wonders in the beginning.

He first created for the sons of men

Heaven as a roof, the holy Creator,

then Middle-earth the keeper of mankind,

the Eternal Lord afterwards made,

the lands for men, the Almighty Lord.