Old English (Sandra, Bori, Rita)

Characteristics

Basically all literature and poetry in that time was based on legends or religious stories involving heros and religiously significant people. The most common types of literature were chronicles, epic poetry, hagiographie and riddles. Epic poetry is oral poetry that was passed on from "mouth to mouth" through generations. These stories often have several different versions since sometimes as people told them differently the story changed in to different directions. Epic poetry often has references to significant events to a culture or nation.
Hagiographies are stories about the lives of christian saints, focusing on their miracles.
Most of the literature from the Anglo-Saxon period were orally performed amongst the people and so great emphasis was put into the sounding of these works.
Rhytm was an important part of the old Anglo-Saxon literature, since most of it was poetry. Many of these works were made into songs. The germanic metre was very common.

The Works

It is very difficult to name any writers from the Anglo-Saxon period, because only manuscripts have been preserved from that time.

The most famous epic was Beowulf, which was a heroic poem of Scandinavian man, who defeats a great dragon but dies wounded in the end as an epic hero. Beowulf has been recognized as one of the bases of the English literature.

Junius manuscript includes five different parts which are Exodus, Christ and Satan, Genesis A & B and Daniel. This manuscript gives Christian viewpoint to the heroic stories by interpreting the important aspects that are present in the base of Christianity such as the Fall of Satan and the sacrifice of Isaac.

The Exeter Book written by the bishops of Exeter is a collection of Anglo-Saxon riddles and elegies. An exact time for the writing of this cannot be determined but it can be estimated that it was somewhere between 960-990 AD.

An example of an old riddle from the Exeter book:

Ic eom wunderlicu wiht   wifum on hyhte

neahbuendum nyt;   nægum sceþþe

burgsittendra nymthe   bonan anum.

Staþol min is steapheah   stonde ic on bedde

neoðan ruh nathwær.   Neþeð hwilum

ful cyrtenu   ceorles dohtor

modwlonc meowle   þæt heo on mec gripe

ræseð mec on reodne   reafath min heafod

fegeð mec on fæsten.   Feleþ sona

mines gemotes   seo þe mec nearwað

wif wundenlocc.   Wæt bið þæt eage.

In a modern English:

"I am a wondrous creature for women in expectation, a service for neighbors. I harm none of the citizens except my slayer alone. My stem is erect, I stand up in bed, hairy somewhere down below. A very comely peasant's daughter, dares sometimes, proud maiden, that she grips at me, attacks me in my redness, plunders my head, confines me in a stronghold, feels my encounter directly, woman with braided hair. Wet be that eye."

Answer is an onion

[Source: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exeter_Book]