![]() ![]() ![]() The story of Caedmon’s poetic inspiration, as told by the Venerable Bede (ca. His account of Caedmon involves much mythmaking, and it is best read as an example of the storyteller’s art. Bede’s monastic milieu was not impervious to oral culture, it seems. Moreover, he added the story of Caedmon’s later life and pious death. Naturally, Bede turned this tale-type to his own purposes by emphasising devotional features that are not a normal part of the tale. Clinching this connection is the motif that Caedmon, a lowly cowherd, is called by name by his mysterious interlocutor. ![]() The plot of a tale well known in modern Irish and Scottish tradition, however, “The Man Who Had No Story” (Irish type 2412B), resembles the first part of Bede’s chapter so closely as to suggest that Bede shaped his account under the influence of this narrative pattern, which must, therefore, be assumed to be of some antiquity. Bede’s Caedmon, “The Man Who Had No Story”Īlthough various analogues have been cited to Bede’s account of the poet Caedmon, none are very close. ![]()
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