fl. c. 657-680 · Northumbrian monk at Whitby, the earliest English poet known by name
About Cædmon
Cædmon (fl. c. 657-680) was a Northumbrian layman attached to the abbey of Whitby under the abbess Hild. Bede reports that he could not sing until a dream gave him the gift of sacred song, after which he became a monk and turned Scripture into English verse. He is the earliest English poet known by name, and his nine-line hymn is the only poem that can be confidently assigned to him.
Cædmon's Hymn is a nine-line poem in praise of God the Creator and the oldest surviving English poem whose maker is known by name. It survives because Bede told its story in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, finished in 731.