Most of the Old English manuscripts were written in Latin characters. The Latin Alphabet was modified by the scribes to suit the English language (some letters were changed and some new letters were added (see examples above)). The Old English manuscripts that give us the examples of the language of that period are:
personal documents containing names and place names;
legal documents (charters);
glosses to the Gospels and other religious texts (Latin-English vocabularies for those who did not know Latin good enough to understand the texts);
textual insertions (pieces of poetry).