12 underþēoded; ǫnd wið þǣm þā ðe in ōðre wīsan dōn woldon,
13 hē wæs mid welme[12] micelre ęllenwōdnisse onbærned.
14 Ǫnd hē for ðon fægre ęnde his līf betȳnde ǫnd geęndade.
[111.1.] ðysse abbudissan. The abbess referred to is the famous Hild, or Hilda, then living in the monastery at Streones-halh, which, according to Bede, means “Bay of the Beacon.” The Danes afterward gave it the name Whitby, or “White Town.” The surroundings were eminently fitted to nurture England’s first poet. “The natural scenery which surrounded him, the valley of the Esk, on whose sides he probably lived, the great cliffs, the billowy sea, the vast sky seen from the heights over the ocean, played incessantly upon him.” (Brooke.)
Note, also, in this connection, the numerous Latin words that the introduction of Christianity (A.D. 597) brought into the vocabulary of O.E.: abbudisse, mynster, bisceop, Lǣden, prēost, æstel, mancus.
[112.4-5.] The more usual order of words would be ac nǣnig, hwæðre, ne meahte ðæt dōn gelīce him.
[112.10-11.] ǫnd his ... singan, and which it became his (the) pious tongue to sing.
[112.14-15.] blisse intinga, for the sake of joy; but the translator has confused laetitiae causā (ablative) and laetitiae causa (nominative). The proper form would be for blisse with omission of intingan, just as for my sake is usually for mē; for his (or their) sake, for him. Cf. Mark vi, 26: “Yet for his oath’s sake, and for their sakes which sat with him, he would not reject her,” for ðǣm āðe, ǫnd for ðǣm þe him mid sǣton. For his sake is frequently for his ðingon (ðingum), rarely for his intingan. Þingon is regularly used when the preceding genitive is a noun denoting a person: for my wife’s sake, for mīnes wīfes ðingon (Genesis xx, 11), etc.
[112.18-19.] þæt ... þæt hē forlēt. The substantival clause introduced by the second þæt amplifies by apposition the first þæt: When he then, at a certain time (instrumental case, [§ 98, (2)]), did that, namely, when he left the house. The better Mn.E. would be this ... that: “Added yet this above all, that he shut up John in prison” (Luke iv, 20).
[113.1-2.] þāra ... beboden. This does not mean that Cædmon was a herdsman, but that he served in turn as did the other secular attendants at the monastery.