It seems highly probable that Aldhelm — surely the most fascinat ing figure in our literature before Chaucer — must have written vernacular verse earlier than Caedmon, and that he is therefore entitled to be called the Father of English Poetry. See William of Malmesbury's Life of him, here and there, and scraps in Asser's Life of Alfred. Of course, in this location of Aldhelm, as hinted in the term historic beginning of our literature, one bears in mind the possible sixth-century date of Widsith's Traveller's Song, of Dcor's Lament, and of other poems.