Cædmons carmen und Bedas Paraphrase

Abstract Bede’s paraphrase firstly changes some words, probably filiis hominum in place of eordu barnum too, and then deletes four half-verses, because he was not content with Cædmon’s text for theological reasons. Therefore he does not follow the true sense in full, but only in line with the amendments. His god is already creator before the creation of the world, and not an eternal Lord. Then he eliminates the third act of creation, the furnishing of the earth, probably not for men, but with men. Bede’s Cædmon is therefore not the real Cædmon, and his Cædmon-narration is seemingly following Mohammed’s first revelation and reducing him to a “clean animal”. All that we know about the real Cædmon is bound up in the original version of his short song and must be seen without Bede’s distorting view.