Editing Cædmon (section)

===General corpus===
Bede's account indicates that Cædmon was responsible for the composition of a large [[:wikt:oeuvre|oeuvre]] of vernacular religious poetry. In contrast to Saints [[Aldhelm]] and [[Dunstan]],<ref>On whose careers as vernacular poets in comparison to that of Cædmon, see [[#opland1980|Opland 1980]], pp. 120&ndash;127 and 178&ndash;180.</ref> Cædmon's poetry is said to have been exclusively religious. Bede reports that Cædmon "could never compose any foolish or trivial poem, but only those which were concerned with devotion", and his list of Cædmon's output includes work on religious subjects only: accounts of creation, translations from the [[Old Testament|Old]] and [[New Testament]]s, and songs about the "terrors of future judgment, horrors of hell, ... joys of the heavenly kingdom, ... and divine mercies and judgments." 

Of this corpus, only his first poem survives. While vernacular poems matching Bede's description of several of Cædmon's later works are found in [[Caedmon manuscript|London, British Library, Junius 11]], traditionally referred to as the "Junius" or "Cædmon" manuscript, the older traditional attribution of these texts to Cædmon or Cædmon's influence cannot stand. The poems show significant stylistic differences both internally and with Cædmon's original ''Hymn'',<ref>See [[#wrenn1946|Wrenn 1946]]</ref> and there is nothing about their order or content to suggest that they could not have been composed and anthologised without any influence from Bede's discussion of Cædmon's oeuvre. 

The first three Junius poems are in their biblical order and, while ''[[Christ and Satan]]'' could be understood as partially fitting Bede's description of Cædmon's work on future judgment, pains of hell and joys of the heavenly kingdom,<ref>[[#gollancz1927|Gollancz 1927]], p. xlvi</ref> the match is not exact enough to preclude independent composition. As Fritz and Day have shown, Bede's list itself may owe less to direct knowledge of Cædmon's actual output than to traditional ideas about the subjects fit for Christian poetry<ref>[[#fritz1969|Fritz 1969]], p. 336</ref> or the order of the [[catechism]].<ref>[[#day1975|Day 1975]], pp. 54&ndash;55</ref>  Similar influences may, of course, also have affected the makeup of the Junius volume.<ref>See [[#day1975|Day 1975]], p. 55, for a discussion of ''Christ and Satan''.</ref>