Cædmon

Cædmon is the earliest English poet whose name is known. Almost everything known about him comes from the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, written by Bede around 731. According to Bede, Cædmon was an unlettered cowherd who worked for the double monastery of Whitby in Northumbria, led by the abbess Hild, in the seventh century. At feasts, when the harp was passed around for each guest to sing, he would leave because he knew no songs. One night, Bede says, a figure appeared to him in a dream and told him to sing about the creation, and he composed verses in praise of God the Creator. The abbess and scholars judged that he had received a gift from God, and he was invited to become a monk. He went on to turn stories from the Bible into Old English poetry. Only his short nine-line Hymn survives, preserved in manuscripts of Bede's history. Bede says he died peacefully, probably around 680.

Cædmon is also an author in the library: author page and works.

Faith: The first Old English Christian poet; a herdsman who joined the monastery at Whitby. Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica