Then he arose from his sleep, and all that he had sung while asleep he held fast in memory; and soon afterward he added many words like unto them befitting 55 a hymn to God. The next morning he came to the steward who was his master and told him of the gift he had received. The steward immediately led him to the abbess and related what he had heard. She bade assemble all the wise and learned men and asked Cædmon to 60 relate his dream in their presence and to sing the song that they might give their judgment as to what it was or whence it had come. They all agreed that it was a divine gift bestowed from Heaven. They then explained to him a piece of holy teaching and bade him if he could, 65 to turn that into rhythmic verse. When he received the instruction of the learned men, he departed for his house. In the morning he returned and delivered the passage assigned him, turned into an excellent poem.
Thereupon, the abbess, praising and honoring the 70 gift of God in this man, persuaded him to leave the condition of a layman and take monastic vows. And this he did with great eagerness. She received him and his household into the monastery and made him one of the company of God’s servants and commanded that he 75 be taught the holy writings and stories. He, on his part, pondered on all that he learned by word of mouth, and just as a clean beast chews on a cud, transformed it into the sweetest of poetry. His songs and poems were so pleasing that even his teachers came to learn 80 and write what he spoke. He sang first of the creation of the earth, and of the origin of mankind, and all the story of Genesis, the first book of Moses; and afterwards of the exodus of the Children of Israel from the land of Egypt and the entry into the Promised Land; 85 and many other stories of the Holy Scriptures; the incarnation of Christ, and his suffering and his ascension into heaven; the coming of the Holy Ghost and the teaching of the apostles; and finally he wrote many songs concerning the future day of judgment and of 90 the fearfulness of the pains of hell, and the bliss of heaven; besides these he composed many others concerning the mercies and judgments of God. In all of these he strove especially to lead men from the love of sin and wickedness and to impel them toward the love 95 and practice of righteousness; for he was a very pious man and submissive to the rules of the monastery. And he burned with zeal against those who acted otherwise. For this reason it was that his life ended with a fair death.
ALFRED’S PREFACE TO HIS TRANSLATION OF GREGORY’S “PASTORAL CARE”
[Text: Bright’s Anglo-Saxon Reader, pp. 26 ff.]
King Alfred sends greetings to Wærferth in loving and friendly words. I let thee know that it has often come to my mind what wise men there were formerly throughout England among both the clergy and the 5 laity, and what happy times there were then throughout England, and how the kings who held sway over the people in those days obeyed God and his ministers; and how they preserved not only their peace but their morality also and good order at home and extended 10 their possessions abroad; and how prosperous they were both with war and with wisdom; and how zealous the clergy were both in teaching and in learning, and in all the services they owed to God; and how foreigners came to the land in search of wisdom and learning, and 15 how we should now have to secure them from abroad if we were to have them. So complete was this decay in England that there were very few on this side of the Humber who could understand their rituals in English or translate a Latin letter into English; and I feel sure 20 that there were not many beyond Humber. So few there were that I can not remember a single one south of the Thames when I began to reign. Almighty God be thanked that we have any teachers among us now....
Then I considered all this, and brought to mind 25 also how, before it had all been laid waste and burned, the churches throughout all England stood filled with treasures and books; and there was a great multitude of God’s servants, but they knew very little about the books, for they could not understand anything in them, 30 since they were not written in their own language—as if they spoke thus: “Our fathers who held these places of old loved wisdom and through it acquired wealth and bequeathed it to us. Here we may still see their tracks, but we can not follow them, and hence we have 35 now lost both the wealth and the wisdom, since we would not incline our hearts after their example.”
When I called all this to mind, I wondered very much, considering all the good and wise men who were formerly throughout England and all the books that they 40 had perfectly learned, that they had translated no part of them into their own language. But soon I answered myself and said: “They did not expect that men should ever become as careless and that learning should decay as it has; they neglected it through the desire that the 45 greater increase of wisdom there should be in the land the more should men learn of foreign languages.”
I then considered that the law was first found in the Hebrew tongue, and again when the Greeks learned it, they translated it all into their own language. And the 50 Romans likewise when they had learned it, they translated it all through learned scholars into their own language. And all other Christian people have turned some part into their own language. Wherefore it seems to me best, if it seems so to you, that we should translate 55 some books that are most needful for all men to know into the language which we can all understand and that we should bring about what we may very easily do with God’s help if we have tranquillity; namely, that all youths that are now in England of 60 free birth, who are rich enough to devote themselves to it, be put to learning as long as they are not fitted for any other occupation, until the time that they shall be able to read English writing with ease: and let those that would pursue their studies further be taught more 65 in Latin and be promoted to a higher rank. When I brought to mind how the knowledge of Latin had formerly decayed throughout England, and yet many knew how to read English writing, I began among other various and manifold troubles of this kingdom to turn 70 into English the book that is called in Latin Pastoralis and in English The Shepherd’s Book, sometimes word for word, sometimes thought by thought, as I had learned it from Plegmund my archbishop, and Asser my bishop, and Grimbald my priest, and John my priest. 75 After I had learned it so that I understood it and so that I could interpret it clearly, I translated it into English. I shall send one copy to every bishopric in my kingdom; and in each is a book-mark worth fifty mancuses. And I command in God’s name that no man 80 take the book-mark from the monastery. It is not certain that there will be such learned bishops as, thanks be to God, we now have nearly everywhere. Hence I wish the books to remain always in their places, unless the bishop wishes to take them with him, or they be lent 85 out anywhere, or any one be copying them.
THE CONVERSION OF EDWIN.
[From Alfred’s translation of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History. Text: Bright, Anglo-Saxon Reader, p. 62, line 2—p. 63, line 17.]