Not so much a variant as a descendant of German. Old English, which is part West Germanic and part Norse, sounds 80% like modern English (though spoken by a person with a speech impediment) and 20% kinda-German. If’ it’s a variant, there’s a lot of variation. For example, “gelu” is pronounced “yelu” and just means yellow. The German equivalent is Gelb, which looks similar but sounds like it’s written, which isn’t close to “yelu.”