(Click 'Captions' to enable Subtitles/[CC] in Old English w/Modern English translation)
leiken performs Cædmon's Hymn, a poem composed by Cædmon, an illiterate cow-herder who was able to sing in honour of God the Creator, using words that he had never heard before. The work was passed down from a Latin translation by Bede in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People. It was composed between 658 and 680 and is the oldest recorded Old English poem.
More about leiken:
https://leiken.xyz/
Old English Caedmon's Hymn text:
Nū scylun hergan hefaenrīcaes Uard,
metudæs maecti end his mōdgidanc,
uerc Uuldurfadur, suē hē uundra gihwaes,
ēci dryctin ōr āstelidæ
hē ǣrist scōp aelda barnum
heben til hrōfe, hāleg scepen.
Thā middungeard moncynnæs Uard,
eci Dryctin, æfter tīadæ
firum foldu, Frēa allmectig.
Modern English text:
Now [we] must honor the guardian of heaven,
the might of the architect, and his purpose,
the work of the father of glory
as he, the eternal lord, established the beginning of wonders;
he first created for the children of men
heaven as a roof, the holy creator
Then the guardian of mankind,
the eternal lord, afterwards appointed the middle earth,
the lands for men, the Lord almighty.
Thanks for watching!
Share this video ➳
https://youtu.be/Lg4mg7q4bSQ
Watch more medieval performances ➳
http://mednar.org
Performed by leiken
Produced by Evelyn "Timmie" Birge Vitz
Shot & Edited by A. Wahl
Sound by H. Ott
Funded by TEAMS ➳
https://teams-medieval.org/