OLD ENGLISH DIALECTS

 OLD ENGLISH DIALECTS

The history of Old English poetry is rather different from that of Old

English prose, and also much more difficult to discern. 

The major reason for this is that the vast majority of Old English poetry is to be found in only four manuscripts, all compiled in the late tenth to early eleventh century. 

These manuscripts are: 

the Vercelli Book, the Exeter Book, 

the Beowulf Manuscript and the Junius or Caedmon Manuscript.