Ñàéò ïîå糿, â³ðø³, ïîçäîðîâëåííÿ ó â³ðøàõ :: Cædmon :: Êðèòèêà

Cædmon :: Êðèòèêà

The Caedmonian poems, found in a unique tenth-century manuscript, now in the Bodleian Library, were first published and ascribed to Caedmon in 1655 by Francis Junius (du Jon), a friend of Milton, and librarian to the Earl of Arundel. The manuscript consists of poems on Genesis, Exodus, Daniel, and a group of poems in a different hand, now called collectively "Christ and Satan", and containing the Fall of the Angels, the Descent into Hell, the Resurrection, the Ascension, the Last Judgment, and the Temptation in the Wilderness. The tendency among Anglo-Saxon scholars has been to deny the Caedmonian authorship of most of these poems, except part of the "Genesis", called A, and parts of the "Christ and Satan". In 1875 Professor Sievers advanced the theory, on grounds of metre, language, and style, that the part of the "Genesis" called B, ll. 235-370, and ll. 421-851, an evident interpolation, was merely a translation and recension of a lost Old Saxon "Genesis" poem of the ninth century, whose extant New Testament part is known as the "Heliand". Old Saxon is the Old Low German dialect of the continental Saxons, who were converted in part from England. The Sievers theory, whose history is one of the brilliant episodes of modern philology, was established in 1894 by the discovery of fragments of an Old Saxon "Genesis". (Parallel passages in Cook and Tinker.) Bede tells us that many English writers of sacred verse had imitated Caedmon, but that none had equalled him. The literary value of parts of the Caedmonian poems is undoubtedly of a high order. The Bible stories are not merely paraphrased, but have been brooded upon by the poet until developed into a vivid picture, with touches drawn from the English life and landscape about him. The story of the flight of Israel resounds with the tread of armies and the excitement of camp and battle. The "Genesis" and the "Christ and Satan" have the glow of dramatic life, and the character of Satan is sharply delineated. The poems, whether we say they are Caedmon's or of the school of Caedmon, mark a worthy beginning of the long and noble line of English sacred poetry.