This module gives an overview of the development of English since Anglo-Saxon times, incorporating material on the great Middle English poet Geoffrey Chaucer, author of The Canterbury Tales.

An entertaining and irreverent History of English in 10 minutes:

Check out this tree of European Languages:

 Useful sites with plenty of information:

• Superb microsite from the British Library, with a lot of deep resources and original material, including an interactive timeline. See (and hear) David Crystal on the Old English poem Beowulf here, 
• http://www.thehistoryofenglish.com
• A (very) brief history of the English language
• From Oxford Dictionaries, Five Events that Shaped the History of English
• All the world's languages, in one visualisation.

Melvyn Bragg's TV History of the Language: