The Norton Anthology of English Literature

I'm not quite sure why but I've taken to the idea of reading the entire two volume set of the Norton Anthology.  I've had the sixth edition for maybe thirty years (since my first year at Stirling University).  I've dipped into it from time to time, as required by course reading lists.

So I started today with the introductions and the Venerable Bede (of whose work I've had to read before).  The Norton begins with Bede's account of the Caedmon Hymn.  There is something fascinating about the idea of me, sitting in our modern apartment block in Sydney, reading the account written more than 1,300 years ago of the only surviving work one of only 12 Anglo-Saxon poet's identifiable by name, Caedmon.  It's the earliest work of Anglo-Saxon poetry known to us.

Part of what fascinates me is this.  There is an historical figure, Bede.  He was probably 63 when he died.  He may have been Christened Bede because his wealthy, possibly aristocratic, family intended from Bede's birth that he should enter the service of The Church.  This is a real man, speaking to us down through history, of another real man, Caedmon, who started life as a herdsman and ended it as the English language's earliest recorded poet.  Thirteen hundred years ago.

Nu scylun hergan    hefaenricaes uard,

metudæs maecti    end his modgidanc,

uerc uuldurfadur,    sue he uundra gihuaes,

eci dryctin,    or astelidæ.

He aerist scop    aelda barnum

heben til hrofe,    haleg scepen.

Tha middungeard    moncynnæs uard,

eci dryctin,    æfter tiadæ

 firum foldu,    frea allmectig.

Now we must praise     the Protector of the heavenly kingdom,

the might of the Measurer     and His mind's purpose,

the work of the Father of Glory,     as He for each of the wonders,

the eternal Lord,      established a beginning.

He shaped first     for the sons of the Earth

heaven as a roof,     the Holy Maker;

then the Middle-World,     mankind's Guardian

the eternal Lord,      made afterwards,  

solid ground for men,     the almighty Lord.

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