What are the several old English characters that no longer exist in modern English?

You're right to think of Old English as having different characters than modern English. It's a bit like comparing Latin to Italian - they're related, but have evolved significantly over time.

Here are some of the characters that were present in Old English but are no longer used in modern English:

* Runes: Old English was originally written using runes, which are a set of characters used by Germanic peoples. While some runes were similar to the Latin alphabet, others were unique. These runes were gradually replaced by the Latin alphabet.

* Thorn (þ): This character represented the 'th' sound in words like 'the' and 'that.' It was later replaced by the digraph 'th'.

* Eth (ð): Similar to Thorn, this character also represented the 'th' sound, but in words like 'this' and 'father.' It was also replaced by the digraph 'th'.

* Wynn (ƿ): This letter represented the 'w' sound. It eventually lost its distinctive form and became simply 'w'.

* Ash (æ): This character represented the 'a' sound in words like 'man' and 'cat'. It later merged with the letter 'a'.

* Yogh (ȝ): This letter represented the 'y' or 'gh' sound. It was replaced by the letter 'y' or the digraph 'gh'.

While these characters are no longer used in modern English, they offer a fascinating glimpse into the evolution of the language.

Let me know if you'd like to delve deeper into the history of any of these characters!