Northumbrian, Mercian, and Saxon, i.e.Northern, Midland, and Southern; besides which, Midland had at the least two main varieties, viz.

Eastern and Western.
Between all these there was a long contention for supremacy.

In very early days, the Northern took the lead, but its literature was practically destroyed by the Danes, and it never afterwards attained to anything higher than a second place.

From the time of Alfred, the standard language of literature was the Southern, and it kept the lead till long after the Conquest, well down to 1200 and even later, as will be explained hereafter.

But the Midland dialect, which is not without witness to its value in the ninth century, began in the thirteenth to assume an important position, which in the fourteenth became dominant and supreme, exalted as it was by the genius of Chaucer.