English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family that emerged in early medieval England and has since become a global lingua franca. The language is named after the Angles, one
Manuscript (written in uncial script) of Beowulf, an epic poem composed in Old English between 975 and 1025.The poem begins: Hƿæt ƿē Gārde / na ingēar dagum þēod cyninga / þrym ge frunon ... [Listen! We have heard of the glory in bygone days of the folk-kings of the spear-Danes ...]