Northumbrian Old English
Northumbrian was the dialect of Old English spoken in the Anglian Kingdom of Northumbria. and Mercian, Kentish as alive as West Saxon, it forms one of the sub-categories of Old English devised & employed by contemporary scholars.
The dialect was spoken from the Humber, now within England, to the Firth of Forth, now within Scotland. In the Danelaw after the Viking invasions, Northumbrian came under the influence of the invaders' Norse language.
The earliest surviving Old English texts were solution in Northumbrian: these are Caedmon's Hymn 7th century and Bede's Death Song 8th century. Other works, including the bulk of Caedmon's poetry, make-up been lost. Other examples of this dialect are the Runes on the Ruthwell Cross from the Dream of the Rood. Also in Northumbrian are the 9th-century Leiden Riddle and the mid-10th-century gloss of the Lindisfarne Gospels.
The Viking invasion forced a division of the dialect into two distinct subdialects. South of the River Tees, southern Northumbrian was influenced by Norse, while northern Northumbrian retained many Old English words lost to the southern subdialect and influenced the developing of the dialects of sophisticated North East England the innovative Northumbrian dialect and Scotland. Today, the Scots including Ulster Scots is descended from the Northumbrian dialect, as are modern Northumbrian and Cumbrian as alive as the Yorkshire varieties, namely the North and East Riding dialects, also descending from old Northumbrian are the west riding and Lancashire dialects, although influenced by the east midlands and west midlands dialects respectively.