Old English was spoken over a thousand years ago, when every animal was a deor. In this glittering collection of words and animals we find deors big and small, ordinary, extraordinary and delightfully baffling.

From walker-weavers (spiders) and grey-cloaked ones (eagles) to moon-heads and teeth-tyrants (historians still don't know!), we discover a world both familiar and strange: where ants could be monsters and panthers could be your friend, where dog-headed men were as real as elephants and where whales were as sneaky as wolves. From the author of The Wordhord comes another delightful dive into the realm of Old English: words and creatures that will change the way you see the world, and the strangest creatures of all - us!