Lost 1,200-year-old manuscript contains the first English poem

Hidden for decades and once believed lost, the 1,200-year-old manuscript contains Caedmon’s Hymn — a nine-line Old English poem said to have been miraculously composed by a Northumbrian cowherd after a divine dream. Scholars date the manuscript to between 800 and 830, making it the third oldest surviving copy of the poem ever identified.

Caedmon's Hymn

By Caedmon

Translated By Roy M. Liuzza

Now let us praise Heaven-Kingdom's guardian,

the Maker's might and his mind's thoughts,

the work of the glory-father—of every wonder,

eternal Lord. He established a beginning.

He first shaped for men's sons

Heaven as a roof, the holy Creator;

then middle-earth mankind's guardian,

eternal Lord, afterwards prepared

the earth for men, the Lord almighty.

Read More: ScienceDaily