In other words, a single Low Dutch speech then apparently prevailed from the mouth of the Elbe to that of the Scheldt, with small local variations; and from this speech the Anglo-Saxon and the modern English have developed in one direction, while the Dutch has developed in another, the Frisian dialect long remaining intermediate between them.

Scandinavian ceased, perhaps, to be intelligible to Englishmen at an earlier date, the old Icelandic being already marked off from Anglo-Saxon by strong peculiarities, while modern Danish differs even more widely from the spoken English of the present day.
The relation of Anglo-Saxon to modern English is that of direct parentage, it might almost be said of absolute identity.

The language of _Beowulf_ and of AElfred is not, as many people still imagine, a different language from our own; it is simply English in its earliest and most unmixed form.

What we commonly call Anglo-Saxon, indeed, is more English than what we commonly call English at the present day.

The first is truly English, not only in its structure and grammar, but also in the whole of its vocabulary: the second, though also truly English in its structure and grammar, contains a large number of Latin, Greek, and Romance elements in its vocabulary.