A Mystery of Revelation: ‘Caedmon’s Hymn’ and the Quran

This article examines (as an analogous pair) the narrative in Venerable Bede’s account of ‘Caedmon’s Hymn’, and in Ibn Hisham’s account of the Prophet’s first revelation at Mt Hira (Q 96:1-5). The author examines their respective manuscript traditions, their general narrative structures, and the issue of thematic or formulaic parallels in the angelic revelations themselves. The essay concludes with a discussion of the problems in assigning possible explanations for the analogous traditions.