In literature, what is the Old English period?

For historical
background, Old English is one of the many precursors to the Modern
English language, and was spoken and written between the 5th and 12th centuries
C.E. (Wikipedia). It originated with the entrance of Germanic Anglo-Saxons. Latin
influence left from the Roman Britain period is not clearly discernible (OED). Old English was a
non-standardized collection of regional dialects, so there is no single dictionary for
translation as there was no single language.

The Old English literary Period
started sometime in the 5th century, but there are no surviving documents from that time to
serve as examples (runic texts and carvings allow the generalization of the time-frame). The
fluxtuatingemphases continued throughout the centuries until the 11th century, when it began to
change into Middle English based on the London dialect. Middle English held dominance until the
standardization of Modern English in the 16th and 17th centuries (the works of Shakespeare and
his contemporaries like Spenser and Philips are considered the first properly documented works
of Modern English). Therefore, the Old English Period would start sometime in the
5th century and last until the end of the 11th
century, when Old English became obsolete.

The most famous
work written in Old English is the epic poem Beowulf, of unknown
author, which is still translated and performed today. The oldest surviving Old English document
is C¦dmon's Hymn, from the 7th century, which
was originally a verbal poem and was never written down by the author. The href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/literature-and-arts/language-linguistics-and-literary-terms/language-and-linguistics/old-english">last
surviving document in Old English is a historical record,
the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle dated 1154, and shows the beginning
influence of Middle English. Middle English was Chaucer's period.