Old English Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest historical form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers probably in the mid-5th century, and the first Old English literary works date from the mid-7th century. After the Norman conquest of 1066, English was replaced, for a time, as the language of the upper classes by Anglo-Norman, a relative of French. This is regarded as marking the end of the Old English era, as during this period the English language
Anglo-Norman literature in England, but none of the French plays acted in England in the 12th and 13th centuries has been preserved. "Adam", which is generally considered to be an Anglo-Norman mystery of the 12th century, was probably written in France at the beginning of the 13th century ("Romania" xxxii. 637), and the so-called Anglo-Norman "Resurrection" belongs also to continental French. It is necessary to state that the earliest English moralities seem to have been imitations of the French ones. Attribution Anglo-Norman literature Anglo-Norman literature is literature composed in the Anglo-Norman language developed during the period 1066–1204 when the Duchy of Normandy