Illustration depicting Casdmon (flourished c. AD 657-684); earliest English (Northumbrian) poet whose name is known. An Anglo-Saxon who cared for the animals at the double monastery of Streonasshalch (Whitby Abbey) during the abbacy (657-680) of St. Hilda (614-680), The sole source of original information about Casdmon's life and work is Bede's Historia ecclesiastica. He is seen here before the abbess, St Hilda of Whitby. The abbess and her counsellors asked Casdmon about his vision and, satisfied that it was a gift from God, gave him a new commission, this time for a poem based on 'a passage of sacred history or doctrine'.