Q: What is the earliest example of English writing that you know of?
A: The earliest surviving examples of Old English are very short runic inscriptions on metal, wood, bone, or stone. The pendant, now in the British Museum, shows a helmeted head above a wolf with runic letters that read “gaegogae mægæ medu.” It is believed to have been produced in the late fifth century.
The earliest surviving examples of Old English writing on parchment are from Latin-English glossaries, with examples dating back to around 700 AD.
The lawcode of King Æthelberht of Kent, dated around 589-616, is considered the earliest substantial example of English writing. It survives in just one manuscript, the Textus Roffensis, made in the 1120s.
“Cædmon’s Hymn,” composed in the seventh century, is considered the earliest documented poem in Old English. It first appeared in Bede’s “Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum” and was later transcribed into Old English versions in the Moore Bede and the St. Petersburg Bede manuscripts.
The epic poem “Beowulf,” believed to have been written around 725, is the first great work of English literature. The oldest surviving manuscript dates back to around the year 1000.
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