Our Catholic Heritage in English Literature of Pre-Conquest Days | Page 3

by and by, out of roughness and chaotic
grammar there grew up a beautiful and stately speech meet for great
poets to sing in, and great men and women to use. So it is that what for
a time seems to be disastrous may one day be realised as benign and
beautiful.
This pre-Conquest language has to be learned as we learn a foreign
tongue. It is much easier to learn than Latin or German, but still it has
to be learned; so we shall have to listen to the thought of these poets in
the language of our own day, allowing ourselves now and then the use
of words or expressions which it is fair to employ in rendering old
poetry or prose, though we do not use them in ordinary speech or
writing.
We shall sometimes use translations, and sometimes I will tell you
about the poetry, giving the gist of it as best I can.
[Illustration: WHITBY ABBEY]
At Whitby you may see the ruins of what must have been a very
beautiful monastery, built high on a hill, swept by brisk and
health-giving winds with the strength and freshness of moorland and
sea. This monastery, part of which was for monks, and part for nuns,
was ruled by Abbess Hild.[A] This seems strange to us, but it was
because the Celtic usage prevailed in the government of the Abbey.
[Footnote A: Hilda is the Latinised form, which it is a pity to use
instead of the English one.]
We must never forget the work of the Celtic missionaries who brought
Christianity from the Western Islands to the North of England: and, of
course, their "ways" as well as their message were impressed on the
converts. Later on, as we know, the Roman usage was established all
over the country.
Among the monks of Streoneshalh, as Whitby was then called, the
Danes having given it its present name, there was, as St Bede the
Venerable tells us, "a brother specially renowned and honoured by

Divine grace, because it was his wont to make fitting songs
appertaining to piety and virtue; so that whatever he learned from
scholars about the Divine Writings, that did he, in a short time, with the
greatest sweetness and fervour, adorn with the language of poetry, and
bring forth in the English speech. And because of his poems the hearts
of many men were brought to despise the world, and were inspired with
desire for the fellowship of the heavenly life.... He was a layman until
he was far advanced in years, and he had never learnt any songs. It was
then the custom that, when there was a feast on some occasion of
rejoicing, all present should sing to the harp in turn. And when
Caedmon saw the harp coming near him, he would get up, feeling
ashamed, and go home to his house. Now once upon a time he had
done this and had left the house where they were feasting, and gone to
the stall where the cattle were, which it was his duty that night to attend
to. There, when his work was done, he lay down and slept, and in a
dream he saw a man standing by him, who hailed him and greeted him
and called him by his name, saying: 'Caedmon, sing me something.'
And Caedmon answered and said, 'I can sing nothing, and therefore did
I go from this feast, and depart hither, because I could not.' And again
he that was speaking with him, said: 'Nevertheless, thou must sing for
me.'"
Then Caedmon understood, and he said in the same spirit that prompted
Our Lady's "Be it done unto me according to thy word," "What shall I
sing?" And the guest of his dream said, "Sing the Creation for me."
As soon as Caedmon had received this answer, he at once began to sing
to the praise of God the Creator verses and words which he had never
heard. St Bede quotes a few lines in the Northern dialect, which may be
rendered thus:
"Now shall we praise the Guardian of the Kingdom of Heaven, the
might of the Creator and the thought of His mind, the works of the
Father of glory; how He made the beginning of all wonders, the
everlasting Lord. First did He shape for the children of men Heaven for
a roof, the holy Shaper. Then the mid-world the Guardian of Mankind,
the Eternal Lord, the King Almighty, created thereafter, the earth for

men."
When Caedmon awoke the gift remained with him, and he went on
composing more poetry. He told the town-reeve about the gift he had
received, and the town-reeve took him to the Abbess and showed her
all the matter. Abbess Hild called together all the most learned