Now we must praise the keeper of the heavenly kingdom

The power of the Measurer and his mind-thoughts,

The work of the glory-father; as he, each of wonders,

the eternal Lord, established from the beginning.

He first shaped, for the children of men,

Heaven as a roof, the Holy Shaper,

Then middle-earth, man-kind’s Guardian,

The eternal Lord, afterwards created,

The earth for men, the Lord Almighty.

 Cædmon’s Hymn (West Saxon version) [all]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

[With apologies for my pronunciation of Northumbrian vowels.  I know that my version here sounds like no Georgie I’ve ever heard, though perhaps we can blame the Great Vowel Shift for that]
Now we must praise the keeper of the heavenly kingdom

The power of the Measurer and his mind-thoughts,

The work of the glory-father; as he, each of wonders,

the eternal Lord, established from the beginning.

He first shaped, for the children of men,

Heaven as a roof, the Holy Shaper,

Then middle-earth, man-kind’s Guardian,

The eternal Lord, afterwards created,

The earth for men, the Lord Almighty.

 Cædmon’s Hymn (Northumbrian version) [all]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

[N.b.: I am posting Caedmon’s Hymn out of sequence (its regular place is in ASPR volume 6, Anglo-Saxon Minor Poems), but my students need to memorize it as part of English 208: Anglo-Saxon Literature.]

Now we must praise the keeper of the heavenly kingdom

The power of the Measurer and his mind-thoughts,

The work of the glory-father; as he, each of wonders,

the eternal Lord, established from the beginning.

He first shaped, for the children of men,

Heaven as a roof, the Holy Shaper,

Then middle-earth, man-kind’s Guardian,

The eternal Lord, afterwards created,

The earth for men, the Lord Almighty.

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