An Introduction to Early Old English Spellings

Anglo-Saxons had once been neighbors of other Germanic tribes in the region around modern Denmark and Sweden. There's very little doubt that a story about a great hero of the Geats named Beowulf was being passed down from one generation to the next. But it wasn't written down yet. It would take at least another century before writing in Britain had progressed to the point where traditional Germanic folklore and stories like Beowulf would come to be written down.