 As <unk> notes , however , it is not entirely clear that Cuthbert is attributing this text to Bede : most manuscripts of the letter do not use a finite verb to describe Bede 's presentation of the song , and the theme was relatively common in Old English and Anglo @-@ Latin literature . The fact that Cuthbert 's description places the performance of the Old English poem in the context of a series of quoted passages from Sacred Scripture , indeed , might be taken as evidence simply that Bede also cited analogous vernacular texts . On the other hand , the inclusion of the Old English text of the poem in Cuthbert 's Latin letter , the observation that Bede " was learned in our song , " and the fact that Bede composed a Latin poem on the same subject all point to the possibility of his having written it . By citing the poem directly , Cuthbert seems to imply that its particular wording was somehow important , either since it was a vernacular poem endorsed by a scholar who evidently frowned upon secular entertainment or because it is a direct quotation of Bede 's last original composition . 
