Old English Period

Old English(O.E) or Anglo Saxon was the language spoken in England in widely differing dialects c.450, when Britain was invaded by various Germanic tribes including the Angles and Saxons, till the invasion of the Normans from France under William the Conqueror in 1066. After conversion to Christainity became general in the seventh century, some of the Anglo Saxon poems, till then part of an Oral culture, were written down, no doubt being modified by monks in the process. Only a handful survive, but they include vigorous ALLITERATIVE LAMENTS like "The Wanderer" and "The Seafarer" and also the great Epic Beowulf. Some Anglo Saxon poems are explicitly Christian like "The Dream of the Rood". the prose of the period is also lively and various: Alred the Great, King of the West Saxons(817-899), was himself a writer and a patron of the arts. The great scholar of the age was Bede(8th century), who wrote in Latin.