Over 1000 years ago, Old-English poetry emerged with striking originality when visionary Anglo-Saxon ruler Alfred the Great sought to replace Latin with English as the principal language of his kingdom. Verse in the vernacular flourished and, at the turn of the 11th century, monastic scribes wrote down these innovative oral compositions, creating the first literature in English. Just decades later, the Norman invasion transformed England’s language and culture so completely as to render these verses the remnants of a forgotten tongue. Rediscovered in the 19th century, their power – heroic, haunting and lyrical – remains undimmed.

The Wanderer and Other Old-English Poems gathers together the miraculous surviving works in the language and their vivid translations by Michael Alexander. Alan Lee, master of mythic imagery and Oscar-winning conceptual artist, brings a breath-taking vision to these early works with illustrations that reimagine the poems as a modern illuminated manuscript. Delicate watercolours conjure ruins and battles, borders twist with dragons and broken harps and riddles reveal their secrets in tangled ink and runes. This is where English literature begins – and still speaks.