Caedmon the cowherd and Old English biblical verse

This study reconsiders the social pragmatics of the earliest named author of a text in vernacular English: Caedmon, whose 'hymn' would have been originally performed in the seventh century. Caedmon's social standing, stemming from his stated occupation, is contextualized within the Anglo-Saxon 'gedryht', an institution whose historical origins are early enough to have generated reflexes within all the branches of the Germanic language family. His case study is formulated in terms of language acquisition and competence within an a-literate performative milieu.