 When we're thinking about how many languages were used in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, we have a very important snippet of information that Bede gives us in his work, the ecclesiastical history of the English people. He tells us that at the time he was writing, which was in the first part of the 8th century, there were five languages in use in Britain, which were British, Scot, Pictish, English and Latin. But of those five languages, just two came to take centre stage in the development of linguistic usage in Britain, in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, and they were English and Latin. English is a spoken language, Latin as the dominant Russian language. The earliest evidence for the English language are short texts, often just single words, nouns or names that were written using runes, often on portable objects, things like ceramic pots or coins or broaches. The runic alphabet was developed on the continent and came over to Anglo-Saxon England with settlers in the 5th and 6th centuries. Undoubtedly, the dominant literary language in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms was Latin. Latin had a kind of innate authority associated with it because it was one of the sacred languages of Scripture. We have lots of evidence for the use of writing in a secular context as well, outside the Church. So we even have letters surviving from Anglo-Saxon England, as well as charters by which property was transferred between peoples. We have law codes and we have wills by which people disposed of their property after their death. Anglo-Saxon England is distinctive because it uses its vernacular language, English, as a written and literary language that can rival the status of Latin, the language of the Church. In the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, the vernacular emerged as a literary language from the end of the 9th century onwards because its use was encouraged by King Alfred. In Old English and Anglo-Latin, we have around 60,000 lines of poetry surviving. About half of this is Old English, about half of it is Latin. In terms of the greatest works, it's invidious to try and even pick out a few works when there are so many great works in both languages. But Beowulf is clearly a masterpiece and deserves its wonderful reputation. It's a poem in which a superhuman hero destroys three monsters. But it's also a poem which conveys the heroic glory of the past, even as it points to its destruction.