ENGL 203 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Blackletter, Alliterative Verse, Nyishi (Tribe)
20 Oct 2016
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Bede"s ecclesiastical history of the english people and caedmon"s. Bede"s ecclesiastical history of the english people a latin prose history was written in latin and was completed in 731. The story of re-christianization of england after the anglo-saxon conquest. 673-735) was not the author of caedmon"s hymn. He translated the oral poem into latin and added it to his text. Caedmon"s hymn was an oral old english alliterative verse poem composed by an illiterate cowherd named caedmon between 658-680. Old english was not a written language but an oral-formulaic style that was recited to an illiterate public. Latin was the only language considered worthy of learning and culture and was the only language used to write. Bede admits that the latin translation of the hymn does not of the poem justice. He does not write the poem itself down because orally composed poetry in the vernacular (english) is not literature and shouldn"t be written down.
