itten about A.D. 1000, which was given in 1651 by Archbishop Ussher
to the famous scholar Francis Junius, and is now in the Bodleian library.
They consist of paraphrases of parts of Genesis, Exodus and Daniel, and
three separate poems the first on the lamentations of the fallen angels,
the second on the "Harrowing of Hell," the resurrection, ascension and
second coming of Christ, and the third (a mere fragment) on the temptation.
The subjects correspond so well with those of Caedmon's poetry as described
by Baeda that it is not surprising that Junius, in his edition, published in
1655, unhesitatingly attributed the poems to him. The ascription was
rejected in 1684 by G. Hickes, whose chief argument, based on the character
of the language, is now known to be fallacious, as most of the poetry that
has come down to us in the West Saxon dialect is certainly of Northumbrian
origin. Since, however, we learn from Baeda that already in his time Caedmon
had had many imitators, the abstract probability is rather unfavourable
than otherwise to the assumption that a collection of poems contained in a
late 10th century MS. contains any of his work. Modern criticism has shown
conclusively that the poetry of the "Caedmon MS." cannot be all by one
author. Some portions of it are plainly the work of a scholar who wrote
with his Latin Bible before him. It is possible that some of the rest may
be the composition of the Northumbrian herdsman; but in the absence of any
authenticated example of the poet's work to serve as a basis of comparison,
the internal evidence can afford no ground for an affirmative conclusion.
On the other hand, the mere unlikeness of any particular passage to the
nine lines of the _Hymn_ is obviously no reason for denying that it may
have been by the same author.

The _Genesis_ contains a long passage (ii. 235-851) on the fall of the
angels and the temptation of our first parents, which differs markedly in
style and metre from the rest. This passage, which begins in the middle of
a sentence (two leaves of the MS. having been lost) is one of the finest in
all Old English poetry. In 1877 Professor E. Sievers argued, on linguistic
grounds, that it was a translation, with some original insertions, from a
lost poem in Old Saxon, probably by the author of the _Heliand_. Sievers's
conclusions were brilliantly confirmed in 1894 by the discovery in the
Vatican library of a MS. containing 62 lines of the _Heliand_ and three
frag