Feeling himself thus miraculously aided, Caedmon paraphrased in his dream the Bible story of the creation, and not only remembered the verses when he awoke, but found himself possessed of the gift of song for all his days.
Sharon Turner has observed that the paraphrase of Caedmon "exhibits much of a Miltonic spirit; and if it were clear that Milton had been familiar with Saxon, we should be induced to think that he owed something to Caedmon." And the elder D'Israeli has collated and compared similar passages in the two authors, in his "Amenities of Literature." Another remarkable Anglo-Saxon fragment is called _Judith_, and gives the story of Judith and Holofernes, rendered from the Apocrypha, but with circumstances, descriptions, and speeches invented by the unknown author.
It should be observed, as of historical importance, that the manners and characters of that Anglo-Saxon period are applied to the time of Judith, and so we have really an Anglo-Saxon romance, marking the progress and improvement in their poetic art.
Among the other remains of this time are the death of _Byrhtnoth_, _The Fight of Finsborough_, and the _Chronicle of King Lear and his Daughters_, the last of which is the foundation of an old play, upon which Shakspeare's tragedy of Lear is based.
It should here be noticed that Saxon literature was greatly influenced by the conversion of the realm at the close of the sixth century from the pagan religion of Woden to Christianity.

It displayed no longer the fierce genius of the Scalds, inculcating revenge and promising the rewards of Walhalla; in spirit it was changed by the doctrine of love, and in form it was softened and in some degree--but only for a time--injured by the influence of the Latin, the language of the Church.

At this time, also, there was a large adoption of Latin words into the Saxon, especially in theology and ecclesiastical matters.
THE ADVENT OF BEDE .-- The greatest literary character of the Anglo-Saxon period, and the one who is of most value in teaching us the history of the times, both directly and indirectly, is the man who has been honored by his age as the _venerable Bede_ or _Beda_.

He was born at Yarrow, in the year 673; and died, after a retired but active, pious, and useful life, in 735.

He wrote an Ecclesiastical history of the English, and dedicated it to the most glorious King Ceowulph of Northumberland, one of the monarchs of the Saxon Heptarchy.