British English English and the other West Germanic languages. Initially, Old English was a diverse group of dialects, reflecting the varied origins of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms of England. One of these dialects, Late West Saxon, eventually came to dominate. The original Old English language was then influenced by two waves of invasion: the first was by speakers of the Scandinavian branch of the Germanic family, who conquered and colonised parts of Britain in the 8th and 9th centuries; the second was the Normans in the 11th century, who spoke Old Norman and ultimately developed an English variety of this called Anglo-Norman. These
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