Cædmon's Hymn: Context and Dating

Abstract

In his Historia Ecclesiastica Bede devotes two successive chapters of book 4, chapters 23 and 24, to Hild and to Cædmon. A comparison of these two chapters reveals a series of thematic and motivic parallels that demonstrate a close connection between these two key figures from the monastery of Whitby. But despite these connections and the obvious importance of Hild to the inspiration and poetic career of Cædmon, she herself is never named in chapter 24, merely referred to in the opening sentence as abbatissa “abbess”. Two later references to an abbess in this chapter are usually taken to refer to Hild, and she is thus introduced into the chapter by readers, but not by Bede. Given the importance of Hild, the omission of any specific reference to her in this chapter suggests that her death had occurred before Cædmon composed his Hymn. Taken together with the chronological indications present in the surrounding chapters, the absence of Hild from the story of Cædmon suggests a date in the early 680s for the composition of the Hymn instead of the commonly accepted dating of 657–680.