The shepherd who heard heaven: How Caedmon gave English poetry its first sacred voice

Long before pens met parchment in monasteries, an illiterate herdsman named Caedmon changed the course of English literature. Inspired by a divine dream, he composed the first known Christian hymn in Old English. His story, preserved by Bede, marks the beginning of sacred English verse, and reveals how poetic grace can rise from the most unlettered silence.