For most of the early medieval period the clergy were usually the only people who could read and write. This made the Church very useful to kings because they could codify (write down in permanent form) royal decrees and laws. Non-royal people could also have documents drawn up for them, like wills or deeds of sale for property. These are sometimes found written inside gospel books or bibles.

The language of the Church was Latin, but texts were increasingly written in the language people used everyday – Old English. Old English uses the Roman alphabet plus two letters based on runes. Books were written by hand in scriptoria (writing workshops). Those of the great monasteries in Northumbria, Mercia, Kent and later, Wessex, produced magnificent ‘illuminated’ books – elaborately decorated in colour and gold leaf. They were written in a special script (handwriting style) known as half-uncial, developed in the 7th century by Irish and Northumbrian scribes. It derived from an even grander Italian script called uncial. Everyday documents were written in a smaller hand called miniscule.

Both the Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings used the runic alphabet. Runes were probably designed to be carved on wood and were never used for long texts. Though they originated in pagan times, runes are found on many Christian tombstones and crosses in Northumbria.