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OFFA

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Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 15 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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OFFA , the most .famous See also:

hero of the See also:early See also:Angli. He is said by the Anglo-Saxon poem Widsith to have ruled over See also:Angel, and the poem refers briefly to his victorious single combat, a See also:story which is related at length by the Danish historians Saxo and Svend See also:Aagesen. Offa (Uffo) is said to have been dumb or silent during his early years, and to have only recovered his speech when his aged See also:father See also:Wermund was threatened by the See also:Saxons, who insolently demanded the cession of his See also:kingdom. Offa undertook to fight against both the Saxon See also:king 's son and a chosen See also:champion at once. The combat took See also:place at See also:Rendsburg on an See also:island in the See also:Eider, and Offa succeeded in killing both his opponents. According to Widsith Off a's opponents belonged to a tribe or See also:dynasty called Myrgingas, but both accounts See also:state that he won a See also:great kingdom as the result of his victory. A somewhat corrupt version of the same story is preserved in the Vitae duorum Offarum, where, however, the See also:scene is transferred to See also:England. It is very probable that the Offa whose See also:marriage with a See also:lady of murderous disposition is mentioned in See also:Beowulf is the same See also:person; and this story also appears in the Vitae duorum Offarum, though it is erroneously told of a later Offa, the famous king of See also:Mercia. Offa of Mercia, however, was a descendant in the 12th See also:generation of Offa, king of Angel. It is probable from this and See also:ether considerations that the early Offa lived in the latter See also:part of the 4th See also:century. See H. M.

See also:

Chadwick, Origin of the See also:English Nation (See also:Cambridge, 1907), where references to the See also:original authorities, will be found.

End of Article: OFFA

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