He there composed himself to
rest. A person appeared to him then in a dream and, calling him
by name, said, 'Caedmon, sing some song to me.'
"He answered, 'I cannot sing; for that was the reason why I left
the entertainment and retired to this place, because I cannot
sing.'
"The other who talked to him replied, 'However, you shall sing.'
"'What shall I sing?' rejoined he.
"'Sing the beginning of created things,' said the other.
"Whereupon he presently began to sing verses to the praise of
God, which he had never heard, the purport whereof was thus:--
'Now must we praise the guardian of heaven's kingdom,
The creator's might and his mind's thought;
Glorious father of men! as of every wonder he,
Lord eternal, formed the beginning.
He first framed for the children of earth
The heaven as a roof; holy Creator!
Then mid-earth, the Guardian of mankind,
The eternal Lord, afterwards produced;
The earth for men, Lord almighty.'
"This," says the old historian, who tells the story in Latin, "is
the sense, but not the words in order as he sang them in his
sleep.
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