St Bede quotes a few lines in the Northern dialect, which may be
rendered thus:

"Now shall we praise the Guardian of the Kingdom of Heaven, the might of
the Creator and the thought of His mind, the works of the Father of
glory; how He made the beginning of all wonders, the everlasting Lord.
First did He shape for the children of men Heaven for a roof, the holy
Shaper. Then the mid-world the Guardian of Mankind, the Eternal Lord,
the King Almighty, created thereafter, the earth for men."

When Caedmon awoke the gift remained with him, and he went on composing
more poetry. He told the town-reeve about the gift he had received, and
the town-reeve took him to the Abbess and showed her all the matter.
Abbess Hild called together all the most learned men and the students,
and by her desire the dream was told to them, and the songs sung to them
that they might all judge what this might be and whence the gift had
come. And they were all sure that a divine gift had been bestowed on
Caedmon by God Himself. They gave him a holy story and words of divine
lore, and bad him sing them if he could, putting them into the measure
of verse. In the morning he came back, having set them in most beautiful
poetry. And after that the Abbess had him instructed, and he left the
life in the world for the religious life. We are told by St Bede that he
made much beautiful verse, being taught much holy lore and making songs
so winsome to hear that his teachers themselves learned at his mouth.

"He sang of the creation of earth and the making of man, and the history
of Genesis, and the going out of the Israelites from the land of the
Egyptians, and their entering into the Land of Promise, and many other
stories told in the Books of the Canon. He also sang concerning the
Humanity of Christ and about His Passion and His Ascension, and about