Caedmon

The story of Caedmon, an illiterate herdsman of Whitby Abbey, is a remarkable one. He is called "the Father of English poetry", though I suppose that "Anglo-Saxon poetry" would be more accurate. His surviving poems, although reduced in number by the attacks of destructive criticism, are still an impressive corpus of religious poetry and show tremendous skill in the use of language and figure to present his theme.

Here is his story.