The invading Germanic tribes spoke similar languages which later developed into Old English.

About half of the most common words used in English today have Old English roots.

Beowulf is a poem written in Old English. It is more than 3,000 lines long and tells the tale of a hero called Beowulf. In the poem, Beowulf battles a monster called Grendel, its mother and a dragon.

The poem was first written down around 1000 A.D. – but it is believed to be much older than this and was probably passed down orally for many generations, with each version becoming slightly different.