For very long after they became Christian the Saxons kept their old pagan ways of thought, and Caedmon, when he came to sing of holy things, sang as a minstrel might.  To him Abraham and Moses, and all the holy men of old, were like the warrior chieftains whom he knew and of whom the minstrels sang.  And God to him was but the greatest of these warriors.  He is “Heaven’s Chief,” “the Great Prince.”  The clash and clang of sword and trumpet calls are heard “amid the grim clash of helms.”  War filled the greatest half of life.  All history, all poetry were bound up in it.  Caedmon sang of what he saw, of what he knew.  He was Christian, he had learned the lesson of peace on earth, but he lived amid the clash of arms and sang them.

Chapter XIII HOW CAEDMON SANG, AND HOW HE FELL ONCE MORE ON SILENCE

One of Caedmon’s poems is call The Genesis.  In this the poet begins by telling of how Satan, in his pride, rebelled against God, and of how he was cast forth from heaven with all those who had joined with him in rebelling.

This story of the war in heaven and of the angels’ fall is not in the Bible.  It is not to be found either in any of the Latin books which the monks of Whitby may have had.  The story did not come from Rome, but from the East.  How, then, did Caedmon hear it?

Whitby, we must remember, was founded by Celtic, and not by Roman monks.  It was founded by monks who came from Ireland to Iona, and from thence to Northumbria.  To them the teaching of Christ had come from Jerusalem and the East rather than from Rome.  So here again, perhaps, we can see the effect of the Celts on our literature.  It was from Celtic monks that Caedmon heard the story of the war in heaven.

After telling of this war, Caedmon goes on to relate how the wicked angels “into darkness urged them their darksome way.”

    “They might not loudly laugh,
    But they in hell-torments,
    Dwelt accursed. 
    And woe they knew
    Pain and sorrow,
    Torment endured
    With darkness decked,
    Hard retribution,
    For that they had devised
    Against God to war.”

Then after all the fierce clash of battle come a few lines which seem like peace after war, quiet after storm.

    “Then was after as before
    Peace in heaven,
    Fair-loving thanes,
    The Lord dear to all.”

Then God grieved at the empty spaces in heaven from whence the wicked angels had been driven forth.  And that they might at last be filled again, he made the world and placed a man and woman there.  This to the chief of the fallen angels was grief and pain, and his heart boiled within him in anger.