CADMON'S HYMN

Northumbrian Version

(MS Cambridge University Library Kk, 5. 16)

Nu scylun hergan hefaenricaes uard,metudes maecti end his mod3idanc,uerc uuldurfadur sue he uundra gihuaes,eci dryctin, or astelide ;he aerist scop aelda barnumheben til hrofe, hale3 scepen,

VeRreNr RreorNcs : Q) nu: DP nulue ; scylun : L scilun,DP sciulun (pene A. S. C. Ross, scuilun Wuest) ; hergan : M her3enwith e dotted for deletion and a written above the line, L herga,DP herga; hefaen: L hefen, DP hefun; ricaes: L ricas, P rincaes ; uard,: DP pueard'.

(z) metudas: D rnetwd,a es, P metuwdaes; maecti: L mehti, DPrnechti; end, : LDP and i -3idana: L -3ithanc, D gedeanc, P gedana.

(3) uerc: D puerc,P puere; uuldur- : D puldur, P omits ; fad.ur:D fudur ; sue : DP suae ; he :D hae ; uwndra : DP pwndla ; gihuaes :L 3ihues, DP gi-.

(4) drycli,n: M y made out of i and o out of n, D drichtin, Pdrochtin, o being deleted and i written over i astelida : DP astalde.

$) aerist: L arist, D uerst with a o:r.et L.t, P raeitst ; scop : DPscoop ; aelda : L alda, DP eord,u ; barnum: M barnil', D bearnum,P pearnum.

(6) heben: L heJen, DP efen ; til. : LDP to ; hrofe : L hrofa ;hale3: L halig, DP halig; scepen: LDP sceppend.

(i) Gollancz (The Ced,mon Manuscripl, lxi) thinks that the open-ing word Nu might reflect the influence of some liturgy where theword referred to the Hour; he also points out a tenth-centuryBenedictine Liturgy where the Ofhce for each Hour began Wesculon God herian (E. Thompsot, Select Monuments of Doctrine andlVorship of the Catholic Church in England., 1875, p.rr3); cf also

CfrDMON'S HYMNWest Saxon Vers,ion

(MS Hattou, 43)tr1u p9 sculan herian heofonrices peard,metudes_ pfhte 7 his modgepanc,

3 purc_puldorfader, spa he pundra 3ehpilc,ece drihten, ord asteald.e;- he arest gesceop ylda bearnumo heofon to hrofe, halig scyppend,

Bouterwek, Cailmon,s des ags, biblische Dichtungen, ccxxii. On theellipsis 9{ the _proooun .we, cf supra p.4, note r.g) aelda: cf Bede'sf tiis homiium i oii Op ,oido, cf sufua p. z.(6) scepen: the second half_Une is metrically impCrfect (cfSievers, ESt xliv. zg5) atd would nave Ueen so,in tf,e-llginat3l:.: s"!pe% is a mistake for- sceppemi wbic.o rpp""r. io-*i"otU",MSS inctuding the ctosety related L. rt i. poriiri" tn Jl)pprnahas been replaced by another word oE .urp,;r awe;i'irioitno4,yry.h Schticking (ESt xliv. r55) sees i" B;il. )"u"rry"ipr"irt*a"r"d has been added

,by_a tat# scriue,lr J. ZupftzJ,, iiiit)prc o1Beowutf, p.6) and i1 Kt .sceppeniia.pi ai";;-tl.i#*Ji." ",the. verb sceppan; but tue latter -"v t" a Kt development ofsceppend, as beccen is for becgend,, wreiten f;;;rh;;'i;f?rgu,IF vi. 34r), and in the c"r" of nioi. uyppen it is

". u*iy to sup-pose the omission of. .fi,*l-.d. (corrected'dy in"l"t"i"."#ilui"*. tos^{ppose the analogical addit-ion of. p in a ronn unrecorded outside9\:upr!. A formal para,el to Jocn a wora scepen i, foooa"'in"0JJG scffin, scffin, F,is shappeno, uoitnu meaning of such words,' juryman ,, is far from thid ,"qrir"a Uere (cf Si";;r;, ;.)'. Iaview of the absence of anyindep'ena"oirpport for

"o bp ,scepen(the. meaning of which would io .oy

"r." be doubtfur in the cou_text) and the fact that alt otuer MSS tr cH .S." J oi ,iiiprra,it is3erhaps better to regard scepen ". Orrog only a scribal variant(so F0rster, Lasebuch, 3)l

38

C.zEDMON'S HYIVIN

tha middungeard moncynnes uard;eci dryctin after tiade

g firum foldu, frea ailmectiS.Primo cantauit Caedmon istud carmen'

Q) tha: D d,a,P dd.; middunSeard,: M the first d altered fromn,L' rniddin3ard,, DP ruidd,umgeard,; -cynnas: DP 'c'i'nnes; uard':DP peard,.

(8i eci,: D Cci,; d,ryctin: D d,rintinc,P-d,rihtim; efter: D efter,e 'aifter; tiad'a: M ti made out of d,, DP ti'ade',

Oi foia": M u added above the line, D onJold,u, L olfold'r't' ;-mecti3: L -mehtig, DP -mechtig,

(ro) LDP omit.

C,DMON'S HYMNmiddangearde mancynnes peard;ece drihten after tida

9 firum on foldum, trea almyhtig.

0) tha is correlative to aeilst in line 5 (cI Bede primodeiinc . . .1. It is probable that eci d,ryctin begins a new sentencewhich simply expands the preceding one and which is entirelyomitted by bedet Latin paiaphrase (supra P. r) : " the EternalLord, the Lt*igfrty Ruler, afterwards adorned the earth for men "

In that case,,nonncynnes.ctard, is in apposition to hale3 scefen, vn,ruidd,un3eard, is the object of scop and -parattel

to hebit. it i, o.tikely that fotdu (tirre 9) is gen.ig. ". ^Fr.*pton

(Mph xxii. 7, 5suggests (cf. -supra p. 3 and p. gS, g rga).(8) tiada from *teogar? (Forite;, Giivan' g432, note z). On thetding -ada cf. supra p. 33, $ r5.

(9) foldu : -u is a kiqd of shallow z added above the line. Fdrste(Lesebu.ch..4, note) interprets this superscribed a as an incompletabbreviation mark'- ind expands as -un, on r""o""t oi-l.r*like scylun, rnid,d,un-, where fiial _n is kept (cf also Archiv cxxxvz8+)' But the shallow superscribed u is uied'for z in r,vD (surteeSoc. Facsimite, fot. 3ab) 1n the name biu.uutf, and in CUlij tfr,reading is fold,u (despite Miss Dobiache-Rojdesivensky,s

"*"ialtio,to foldun); on the early loss of final -n'cI supra p. Sl, Sl+.