Truth Triumphant - Benjamin G. Wilkinson

to make an attempt, and retired to the stable where
he had charge of the cattle. It seemed that a man
appeared to him in his sleep and greeted him,
saying, “Sing, Caedmon, some song to me.” He
answered that he could not, and it was because of
this that he had left the feast. The visitor answered
him, “However, you will sing to me.” “What shall I
sing?” asked the humble youth. “The beginning of
created things,” commanded the voice.
Immediately he began to sing and compose to the
praise of God. When this was reported, Hilda,
always seeking for gifts among her students,
requested him to relate the dream and repeat the
words he had heard. Bede says, “They all
concluded, that heavenly grace had been conferred
upon him by our Lord.”
The students of the abbey delighted themselves
in exercising the gift they had discovered in
Caedmon. They gave him passages from the Holy
Scriptures which, when translated into English, he
immediately converted into harmonious verse and
sweetly repeated to his masters. Bede writes:
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