Dito Firmansyah
61413030
The Biography of Caedmon
There are two forms of old English
poetry : heroic
and Christian. Heroic poetry is based in Germanic legend and history. Christian
or religious poetry adapts biblical narrative and uses the poetic form to
present a moral perspective. And Caedmon
is recognized as being among the earliest of the Christian poets. Caedmon is the earliest English (Northumbrian) poet whose name is known] An Anglo-Saxon who cared for the animals at the double monastery of Streoneshalh
(Whitby Abbey). Monastery is a building or buildings occupied by a community of monks
living under religious vows. Caedmon date of
birth is unknown but He was died in 680. He was originally ignorant of
"the art of song" but learned to compose one night in the course of a
dream. Caedmon is one of twelve Anglo-Saxon
poets identified in medieval sources, and one of only three of these for whom both
roughly contemporary biographical information and examples of literary output
have survived.
Caedmon’s only known surviving work is Caedmon’s Hymn, the
nine lines alliterative vernacular praise poem in honor of God which he supposedly learned
to sing in his initial dream. Actually, Information
about Caedmon's life is sketchy. The sole
source of original information about Caedmon's life and work is Bede's Historia
ecclesiastica. Bede also referred to as Saint Bede or the Venerable Bede was an English monk at the monastery of Saint Peter at
Monkwearmouth and its companion monastery.
According to Bede, Caedmon was a lay brother who cared for the animals at the monastery Streoaeshalch
that now known as Whitby
Abbey. For the example was given by Bede that Caedmon was originally ignorant
about the art song was “One evening, while the
monks were feasting, singing, and playing a harp, Caedmon left early to sleep
with the animals because he knew no songs”. The impression clearly given by
Bede is that he lacked the knowledge of how to compose the lyrics to songs.
While asleep, he had a dream in which "someone"
approached him and asked him to sing principium
creaturarum that has a meaning of
the beginning of
created things. After first refusing to sing, Caedmon subsequently
produced a short eulogistic (something that show flavor of love) poem
praising God, the Creator of heaven and earth. Upon awakening the next morning,
Caedmon remembered everything he had sung and added additional lines to his
poem. He told his foreman about his dream and gift and was taken immediately to
see the abbess.
In other source strongly support
that Caedmon got a lot of inspiration and power to make religious poem from
this accident. During the night Caedmon was visited by the vision of a man who
commanded him to sing. Caedmon refused, claiming that he could not sing. But the
visitor would not be put off. He requested that Caedmon sing of the creation.
To Caedmon's surprise, he sang beautifully in praise of God. It was from this
divine inspiration that Caedmon began to write religious poetry.
The abbess and her counselors asked Caedmon about his vision.
Caedmon was satisfied and assumed that it was
a gift from God. Caedmon assumed this time for a poem based on "a
passage of sacred history or doctrine". by way of a test. When Caedmon
returned the next morning with the requested poem, he was ordered to take monastic vows.
Monastic vows is the public vows made by the members of religious communities pertaining
to their conduct, practices and views.
The abbess ordered her scholars to teach Caedmon sacred
history and doctrine, which after a night of thought, Bede records, Caedmon
would turn into the most beautiful verse. According to Bede, Caedmon was
responsible for a large number of splendid vernacular poetic texts on a variety
of Christian topics while other source says that “Reports indicated that
Caedmon was illiterate and demonstrated no particular talents”
Caedmond’s life story still argued by some people because
it’s sketchy. The story of how he developed his talent is also argued. From
other source says that how he developed his talent is wrapped in the mist of
folklore. It is said that his talent sprang from a dream. It was a common
practice of the time for those present at any feast to take turns performing
and entertaining. Caedmon had, on many occasions, slipped quietly from the
crowd as the harp made its way toward him and it appeared that a song would be
demanded. One evening at the monastery, Caedmon was faced with just such a
challenge. Acutely aware that he had no talents as a poet or musician, he knew
he would be embarrassed when it was his time to perform. As he had on other
occasions when faced with this challenge, he left his friends rather than face
the humiliation of being forced to sing. He retired to his place in the stable,
preferring solitude rather than embarrassment.
After a long and zealously pious life, Caedmon died like a saint: receiving a premonition
(future sight) of death. he
asked to be moved to the abbey's hospice for the terminally ill where, having
gathered his friends around him, he expired, after receiving the Holy
Eucharist, just before nocturns.nocturns is (in the Roman Catholic Church) a part of matins
originally said at night. Although he is often listed as a saint, this is
not confirmed by Bede and it has recently been argued that such assertions are
incorrect.
The details of Bede's story, and in particular of the
miraculous nature of Caedmon's poetic inspiration, are not generally accepted
by scholars as being entirely accurate, but there seems no good reason to doubt
the existence of a poet named Caedmon. Bede's narrative has to be read in the
context of the Christian belief in miracles, and it shows at the very least
that Bede, an educated and intelligent man, believed Caedmon to be an important
figure in the history of English intellectual and religious life.
In the way Bede told the story about Caedmon he never gave
the fix date. Caedmon is said to have taken holy orders at an
advanced age and it is implied that he lived at Streonaeshalch at least in part
during Hilda's abbacy (657–680). Abbacy is he
office, term, or jurisdiction of an abbot. This is the case that proof that the
date is unknown or still argued Book IV Chapter 25 of the Historia
ecclesiastica appears to suggest that Caedmon's death occurred at about the
same time as the fire at Coldingham Abbey, an event dated in the E text of the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle to 679, but after 681 by Bede.[5] The reference to his
temporibus 'at this time' in the opening lines of Chapter 25 may refer more
generally to Caedmon's career as a poet. However, the next datable event in the
Historia ecclesiastica is King Ecgfrith's raid on Ireland in 684 (Book IV,
Chapter 26). Taken together, this evidence suggests an active period beginning
between 657 and 680 and ending between 679 and 684.
Even Bede lived in the generation following Caedmon and was
his closest contemporary and most accurate observer. But there are a lot of
assumption that still argued about the fact of Caedmon. The only biographical
or historical information that modern scholarship has been able to add to
Bede's account concerns the Brittonic origins of the poet's name. Although Bede
specifically notes that English was Caedmon's "own" language, the poet's
name is of Celtic origin: from Proto-Welsh *Cadṽan (from Brythonic
*Catumandos).[6] Several scholars have suggested that Caedmon himself may have
been bilingual on the basis of this etymology, Hilda's close contact with
Celtic political and religious hierarchies, and some (not very close) analogues
to the Hymn in Old Irish poetry.[7] Other scholars have noticed a possible
onomastic allusion to 'Adam Kadmon' in the poet's name, perhaps suggesting that
the entire story is allegorical. The information is very sketchy until now, it
makes the story looked allegorical or fake story.
Bede's account indicates that Caedmon
was responsible for the composition of a large oeuvre of vernacular religious
poetry. Oeuvre is the complete works of a writer, painter or other artist. In
contrast to Saints Aldhelm and Dunstan ( the two others poetry), Caedmon's
poetry is said to have been exclusively religious. Bede reports that Caedmon
"could never compose any foolish or trivial poem, but only those which
were concerned with devotion", and his list of Caedmon's output includes
work on religious subjects only: accounts of creation, translations from the
Old and New Testaments, and songs about the "terrors of future judgment,
horrors of hell, ... joys of the heavenly kingdom, ... and divine mercies and
judgments." Of this corpus, only his first poem survives.
While vernacular poems matching Bede's
description of several of Caedmon's later works are found in London, British
Library, Junius 11 (traditionally referred to as the "Junius" or
"Caedmon" manuscript), the older traditional attribution of these
texts to Caedmon or Caedmon's influence cannot stand. The poems show
significant stylistic differences both internally and with Caedmon's original
Hymn,[22] and there is nothing about their order or content to suggest that
they could not have been composed and anthologized (include (an author or work) in an anthology.) without any influence from Bede's discussion
of Caedmon's oeuvre: the first three Junius poems are in their biblical order
and, while Christ and Satan could be understood as partially fitting Bede's
description of Caedmon's work on future judgment, pains of hell and joys of the
heavenly kingdom.
References:
Difficult words:
Monastery : wihara
Zealous : Tekun
Accomplished: Ulung
Occupied : Berhuni
Roughly : kira-kira
Comtemporery : kontemporer atau sejaman
Output : hasil
Venerable : tua
Sketchy : kurang lengkap
Sole : satu-satunya
Vows : sumpah
Pious : saleh
Endearment : tindakan yang menunjukkan rasa kasih
Subsequently: keemudian
Commission : komisi atau perintah
Passage : kutipan pendek
Conduct : tingkah laku
Pertain : berkenaan
Verse : ayat
Vernacular : Bahasa daerah
Eucharist : Jamuan suci
Matin: morning ceremony of Christian church
Jurisdiction : wilayah hokum
Abbot : kepala biara
Illiterate : Buta huruf
Allegorical : bersifat kiasan
Trivial : sepele
Corpus : Kumpulan tulisan
Devotion: kesetiaan
Mist: kabut
Folklore : Cerita rakyat
Aclutely : akut
Sprang : timbul
Feast : kenduri
Occasion : kesempatan
Solitude: kesendirian
Humillation : penghinaan
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