[113.13-14.] þāra ęndebyrdnes þis is. Bede writes Hic est sensus, non autem ordo ipse verborum, and gives in Latin prose a translation of the hymn from the Northumbrian dialect, in which Cædmon wrote. The O.E. version given above is, of course, not the Northumbrian original (which, however, with some variations is preserved in several of the Latin MSS. of Bede’s History), but a West Saxon version made also from the Northumbrian, not from the Latin.
[113.15.] Nū sculon hęrigean, Now ought we to praise. The subject wē is omitted in the best MSS. Note the characteristic use of synonyms, or epithets, in this bit of O.E. poetry. Observe that it is not the thought that is repeated, but rather the idea, the concept, God. See [p. 124].
[113.17.] wundra gehwæs. See [p. 140, note on cēnra gehwylcum].
[114.7-9.] ǫnd þǣm wordum ... tōgeþēodde, and to those words he soon joined, in the same meter, many (other) words of song worthy of God. But the translator has not only blundered over Bede’s Latin (eis mox plura in eundem modum verba Deo digna carminis adjunxit), but sacrificed still more the idiom of O.E. The predicate should not come at the end; in should be followed by the dative; and for Gode wyrðes sǫnges the better O.E. would be sǫnges Godes wyrðes. When used with the dative wyrð (weorð) usually means dear (= of worth) to.
[114.16.] þā ... gesewen. We should expect frǫm him eallum; but the translator has again closely followed the Latin (visumque est omnibus), as later (in the Conversion of Edwin) he renders Talis mihi videtur by þyslīc mē is gesewen. Talis (þyslīc) agreeing with a following vita (līf). Ælfric, however, with no Latin before him, writes that John wearð ðā him [= frǫm Drihtene] inweardlīce gelufod. It would seem that in proportion as a past participle has the force of an adjective, the to relation may supplant the by relation; just as we say unknown to instead of unknown by, unknown being more adjectival than participial. Gesewen, therefore, may here be translated visible, evident, patent (= gesynelīc, sweotol); and gelufod, dear (= weorð, lēof).
A survival of adjectival gesewen is found in Wycliffe’s New Testament (1 Cor. xv, 5-8): “He was seyn to Cephas, and aftir these thingis to enleuene; aftirward he was seyn to mo than fyue hundrid britheren togidere ... aftirward he was seyn to James, and aftirward to alle the apostlis. And last of alle he was seyn to me, as to a deed borun child.” The construction is frequent in Chaucer.
[115.9-10.] ǫnd hēo hine þā mǫnade ... munuchād onfēnge. Hild’s advice has in it the suggestion of a personal experience, for she herself had lived half of her life (thirty-three years) “before,” says Bede, “she dedicated the remaining half to our Lord in a monastic life.”
[116.6.] hē mǫnig lēoð geworhte. The opinion is now gaining ground that of these “many poems” only the short hymn, already given, has come down to us. Of other poems claimed for Cædmon, the strongest arguments are advanced in favor of a part of the fragmentary poetical paraphrase of Genesis.
[1] = ǣfæstnesse.
[2] = swilce.