{"id":136,"date":"2015-09-25T07:32:00","date_gmt":"2015-09-25T06:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/bardsandauthors\/2015\/09\/25\/caedmon\/"},"modified":"2015-09-25T07:32:00","modified_gmt":"2015-09-25T06:32:00","slug":"caedmon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/bardsandauthors\/2015\/09\/25\/caedmon\/","title":{"rendered":"Caedmon"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nCaedmon – First Christian Poet c648 – 670<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
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\nSourced from out of print 19thC works by George Markham Tweddell<\/b> and William Hall Burnett.<\/b><\/div>\n
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\n<\/div>\n
\nIn his address to the Stokesley Mechanics Institute<\/i>, Saturday 9th November 1850, George Markham Tweddell<\/a><\/b>  gave a talk on Local Writers <\/i>(those from the Cleveland area, including down as far as Whitby) and one of the writers mentioned was Caedmon<\/b> – here’s what he had to say –<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/a>“The eastern extremity of this district, Sir, produced one of the most celebrated Anglo Saxon poets in person of a poor herdsman, named Cedmon, who afterwards became one of the monks of Whitby. Near twelve hundred years have swept over the earth since his body mouldered into the dust ; but his writings have survived the dark and troubled centuries, and were printed, only nineteen years ago in London. There is much in the personal history of Cedmon, when stripped of the superstitious legends with which tradition has invested it, to remind us of the Scottish plough boy, Robert Burns. His writings, however, bear much greater resemblance to those of John Milton ; so much so, indeed, that I should unhesitatingly declare him the Milton on the Anglo Saxon period era. One will find specimens of his poems in Sharon Turner’s History of the Anglo Saxons, in Dr Young’s History of Whitby, and in that popular and excellent work, Chambers’s Cyclopeadia of English Literature<\/i>.”<\/p>\n

\nCedmon <\/span><\/b>
\nPoem by George Markham Tweddell c 1872<\/p>\n

The old Brigantes from our bosky brooks
\nAnd heather-covered hills far were driven;
\nThe Roman legions had been call\u2019d away
\nFrom Britain\u2019s isle, to cross their swords with men
\nWho, rear\u2019d in savage wilds, had over-run
\nFair Italy, and sought to rule the world ;<\/div>\n

The hardy Saxons, from Teutonic woods,
\nHad made our shores their own, and fixed their feet
\nSo firmly on the sod, that nought could shake
\nTheir footsteps from our soil; when he arose,
\nCedmon, the humble herdsman of the swine
\nThat fed on mast of Cleveland\u2019s oaks and beeches,
\nOr tended beeves that then were wont to graze
\nIn Cleveland\u2019s pastures. He heard old ocean
\nDash his wild waves in fury at his feet
\nOf Cleveland\u2019s Iron cliffs, and saw them foam
\nAs if with rage,\u2014anon lie sleeping on
\nOur silver sands, their motion as serene
\nAs maiden\u2019s breasts, which merely heave with breathing;
\nHe saw the morning sun rise in its beauty,
\nShine in its glory, and in splendour set;
\nThe moon and stars for him adorn\u2019d the night,
\nAs they had done for Homer; flowers came forth
\nIn all their rustic beauty at his feet;
\nAnd birds and bees made music for his ears;
\nAnd he became\u2014a poet!<\/p>\n

\nPeter Proletarius<\/b> (aka George Markham Tweddell )<\/b><\/div>\n
\n
<\/b>
\n<\/p>\n
\nIt wasn’t until 1872 that Tweddell wrote the first of a proposed series called The Bards and Authors of Cleveland and South Durham of which only volume 1 appeared. The first chapter is on Caedmon – here – <\/div>\n
\nin pdf form (Click tthe arrow to enlarge and read or download free.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n

Later in 1886, William Hall Burnett<\/b>, (Editor of Middlesbrough Daily Exchange<\/i> and influenced by the earlier work of George Markham Tweddell<\/b>, included a chapter on Caedmon<\/b> in his own book Old Cleveland – Local Writers and Local Worthies <\/i>with his own take on Caedmon<\/b> – again reproduced here in pdf form..<\/p>\n

Another local text on Caedmon<\/b> from Gideon’s Smales<\/b> book Whitby Authors and their Publications.<\/i>
\n1867<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Caedmon – First Christian Poet c648 – 670 Sourced from out of print 19thC works by George Markham Tweddell and William Hall Burnett. In his address to the Stokesley Mechanics Institute, Saturday 9th November 1850, George Markham Tweddell  gave a talk on Local Writers (those from the Cleveland area, including down as far as Whitby) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/bardsandauthors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/bardsandauthors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/bardsandauthors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/bardsandauthors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/bardsandauthors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/bardsandauthors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/bardsandauthors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/bardsandauthors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/bardsandauthors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}