Bede uses religious and even fantastical elements in his story about caedmon. to modern-day readers these elements may seem out of place in a history. what would the effect of these references have been during the time this work was published?

Religion was an everyday part of people's lives back then, so much that the stories made sense to them because of how they based their religion. As we are now, it's not really so much religion you feel? It's based around lots of superficial things.. So Religion is a big part to why us "modern-day readers" feel that it's out of place.
Hope this helped!! :)

Therefore goldie is an animal