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I.—The Name Cædmon
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
Two such authorities as the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica ‘and the’ Dictionary of National Biography’ are arrayed against each other with respect to the derivation of our ancient poet's name. In the ‘Encyclopaedia’ we read:
“Sir Francis Palgravé, despairing of finding a native derivation, suggested (Archæologia, vol. xxiv.) that the poet might have been so called from the Chaldaic name for the book of Genesis, which is ‘b’ Cadmin,‘in the beginning, or’ Cadmon,‘beginning, from the opening words of the first chapter of Genesis. He thought that he might even have been an’ Eastern visitor,’ who had arrived in Britain from the East, mastered the language, and come out as a vernacular poet. A hypothesis so fanciful as this last may be at once rejected…. On the whole, Sir Francis Palgrave's first suggestion seems to involve the least difficulty. ‘Cadmon’ means ‘beginning’ in the Targum of Onkelos, the Chaldee version of the Scriptures, which was in popular use among the Jews from the 1st century B. C. downwards, and some learned ecclesiastic at Whitby who had visited the Holy Land may have given to the poet the name Cadmon (which in Anglo-Saxon mouths became Cædmon), because he was to sing of the ‘beginning’ of things.”
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- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1891
References
1 ‘Grundriss zur Geschichte der angelsächsischen Litteratur,’ p. 117.
2 Op. cit.
3 Archæologia, xxiv, 341-3.
4 The blanks left in the letter are filled in the original with the Hebrew and Chaldee words which are at once transliterated, and which it is impracticable for the printer to reproduce. (A. S. C.)
5 Stokes, ‘Ireland and the Celtic Church,’ p. 169.
6 Ibid., p. 173.
7 Stokes, in Contemp. Rev. xxxvii, 087.
8 Gregory of Tours, ‘Historia Francorum,’ Bk. 7, in Migne, Patrologia Latina, lxxi, 435-6.
9 Ibid., Bk. 8, in Migne, lxxi, 449.
10 Ibid., Bk. to, in Migne, lxxi. 558.
11 Gregory of Tours. ‘Miracula de Glor. Mart.’ 1, 95 in Migne, lxxi, 789.
12 Montalembert, ‘Monks of the West.’ i, 485.
13 Thefan, ‘Vita Hludovici Imp.’ 7, in Man. Germ. Hist. Script., ii, 592.
14 Stokes, pp. 169-170.
15 Ibid., p. 174.
16 Ibid., p. 209.
17 Ibid., pp. 228-9
18 Ibid., p. 183.
19 Ibid. p, 187.
20 Ibid., pp. 244-5.
21 Miss Stokes, ‘Early Christian Art in Ireland,’ p. 51.
22 Ibid., p. 33.
23 Stokes, p. 188, note.
24 Ibid., p. 249.
25 Ibid., p. 99.
26 Ibid., pp. 215-6.
27 Biog. Brit. Lit.’ p. 373.
28 Ethelwerd, in Stevenson's Church Historians of England, ii, 434-5.
29 Stokes, p. 216 note.
30 Bede, ‘Hist. Eccl.’ 5.15. Cf. Bede, ‘De Locis Sanctis,’ ed. Smith, pp. 315-334; esp. p. 324.
31 Bouterwek, ‘Cædmons des Angelsachsen Biblische Dichtungen,’ cxii-cxiv.
32 Ibid., cxliv.
33 Ibid., cxlvii.
34 See also my article in Mod. Lang. Notes for March, 1891 (vi, 71 ff.).
34 Wilhelm Linow, in Erlanger Beiträge zur Engl. Philologie I, 1-3.
35 Kemble, ‘Anglo-Saxon Dialogues of Salomon and Saturn,’ pp. 8-9.
36 Wright, ‘St. Patrick's Purgatory,’ p. 25.
37 ‘Early English Literature,’ pp. 88-9.
38 ‘Gesch. der Litt, des Mittelalters in Abendlande,’ iii, 91; Ibid., 92; Ibid., 93.
39 ‘Casdmon's, etc.,’ cxiii-cxiv.
40 Bede, ‘Lives of the Abbots.’
41 Lingard, ‘Anglo-Saxon Church,’ ii, 107-113.
42 Asser, ‘Life of Alfred.’
43 Bright, ‘Early English Church History,’ p. 219.
44 Stokes, p. 320.
45 Faricius, quoted in Wright. ‘Biog Brit. Lit.’ p. 211.
46 Wright, ‘Biog. Brit. Lit.,’ p. 274. To the some effect the ‘Dict. Christ. Biog.’ and the ‘Dict. Nat. Biog.’
47 Alcuin's letter to Bishop Anno, of Salzburg (ed. Jaffe, epist. 234), with a book which is still preserved as No. 106 of Cologne Cathedral Library; quoted in Mayok and Lumby's ed. of Bede, pp. 398-9,
48 The blanks left in the remainder of this quotation are in the original filled by the Hebrew words which are translated. See note 4.
49 Bude, ed. Gites, 6. 84-5.
50 Wright, ‘Biog. Brit. Lit.,’ p. 36.
51 Lorentz, ‘Life of Alcuin,’ p. 245.
52 Academy, Dec. 27, 1890.
53 ‘History of Art in Phœnicia,’ English trans. i, 29.
54 ‘Ancient Empires of the East,’ p. 30.