rized by considerable imaginative power and vigour of expression,
but they show an absence of literary culture and are somewhat rambling,
full of repetitions and generally lacking in finish. They abound in
passages of fervid religious exhortation. On the whole, both their merits
and their defects are such as we should expect to find in the work of the
poet celebrated by Baeda, and it seems possible, though hardly more than
possible, that we have in these pieces a comparatively little altered
specimen of Caedmon's compositions.

Of poems not included in the Junius MS., the _Dream of the Rood_ (see
CYNEWULF) is the only one that has with any plausibility been ascribed to
Caedmon. It was affirmed by Professor G. Stephens that the Ruthwell Cross,
on which a portion of the poem is inscribed in runes, bore on its top-stone
the name "Cadmon";[3] but, according to Professor W. Vietor, the traces of
runes that are still visible exclude all possibility of this reading. The
poem is certainly Northumbrian and earlier than the date of Cynewulf. It
would be impossible to prove that Caedmon was not the author, though the
production of such a work by the herdsman of Streanaeshalch would certainly
deserve to rank among the miracles of genius.

Certain similarities between passages in _Paradise Lost_ and parts of the
translation from Old Saxon interpolated in the Old English _Genesis_ have
given occasion to the suggestion that some scholar may have talked to
Milton about the poetry published by Junius in 1655, and that the poet may
thus have gained some hints which he used in his great work. The parallels,
however, though very interesting, are only such as might be expected to
occur between two poets of kindred genius working on what was essentially
the same body of traditional material.

The name Caedmon (in the MSS. of the Old English version of Baeda written
_Cedmon, Ceadmann_) is not explicable by means of Old English; the
statement that it means "boatman" is founded on the corrupt gloss
_liburnam, ced_, where _ced_ is an editorial misreading for _ceol_. It is
most probably the British _Cadman_, intermediate between the Old Celtic
_Catumanus_ and the modern Welsh _Cadfan_. Possibly the poet may have been
of British descent, though the inference is not certain, as British names
may sometimes have been given to English children. The name Caedwalla or
Ceadwalla was borne by a British king mentioned by Baeda and by a king of
the West Sa