Chamber's Cyclopædia of English literature; a history, critical and biographical, of authors in the English tongue from the earliest times till the present day, with specimens of their writings . was finishing hisEcclesiastical History. Of what kind that workwas we have no certain knowledge. Thepoems attributed to Ca;dmon by Junius in themanuscript called the Junian Caedmon ha\e beenassigned by critics to different writers. Only oneof \!c\—Genesis ^—is thought by a few to bepossibly from his hand. If so, he wrote the thingin two distinct manners—partly in a mere para-phrase of the Biblical
Chamber's Cyclopædia of English literature; a history, critical and biographical, of authors in the English tongue from the earliest times till the present day, with specimens of their writings . was finishing hisEcclesiastical History. Of what kind that workwas we have no certain knowledge. Thepoems attributed to Ca;dmon by Junius in themanuscript called the Junian Caedmon ha\e beenassigned by critics to different writers. Only oneof \!c\—Genesis ^—is thought by a few to bepossibly from his hand. If so, he wrote the thingin two distinct manners—partly in a mere para-phrase of the Biblical story, dull, uniUuminatedIjy any imagination ; and partly in imaginativeepisodes, in which the Fall of the rebel angels,the Flood, the battles of Abraham, and thestory of Hagar and of Isaac are imaginativelytreated as heroic tales, in the manner of aheathen saga, and with English feeling. It is lO Caedmon to be hoped that some day we shall get evidenceto prove that these fine, bold episodes are fromCasdmons hand. The only verses we know tobe his are transferred into Latin by Bsda, and f pin-Jia>p>n cymnsr cmpm- or^o^AKt-jy,^.^^^^mi^.W(^>nyan 1. in the Budleian Librarj-, Uxlord, wilh a picture designed to represent Noahs ark we have a Northumbrian version of them in anold MS. of the Hisioria Ecclesiasiica. They arethe short hymn which he is said to have sun^on awakening from his dream. Their hymnic formsuggests to critics that Caedmonswork «-as mainly a series of heroichymn-like lays on the subjects ofthe Old and New Testament, tingedwith the colours of the Nature andthe hero myths. It may be thatwe have the remains of one ofthese in the poem, portions ofwhich are carved in runic letterson the Ruthwell Cross in Dum-friesshire. The lines sing ofJesus,the young Hero, who was GodAlmighty, who girded Himself andstepped up, full of courage, on thegallows for the sake of man. Andas He lies there, the Sacred Roodspeaks : Lifted on high, I
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectenglishliterature
