Editing Offa of Angel

{{Short description|Legendary king of the Angels}}
{{For|the later king of Mercia|Offa of Mercia}}
{{Further|Offa (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}}
{{More footnotes needed|date=February 2008}}
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[Image:Uffe den spake.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Uffe den Spake, by [[Peter Nicolai Arbo]].]] -->
[[File:Offa acclamé par son père Varmund.jpg|right|250px|thumb|Wermund runs to embrace his victorious son Offa. Illustration by the Danish [[Lorenz Frølich]] in a 19th-century book.]]
'''Offa''' (nickname for Wulf) is a [[kings of the Angles|semi-legendary king of the Angles]] in the genealogy of the [[kings of Mercia]] presented in the ''[[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]''. He is the son of [[Wermund]] and the father of [[Angeltheow]].
His name is also mentioned in the Old English poem ''[[Widsith]]''. He has been identified with '''Uffo''' (also ''Uffe, Uffi of Jutland''), a [[List of legendary kings of Denmark|legendary Danish king]] in the ''[[Gesta Danorum]]'' by [[Saxo Grammaticus]], and the ''[[Gesta Danorum på danskæ]]''.

==History==
The Old English poem ''[[Widsith]]'' (8th century) refers briefly to his victorious single combat, a story which is related at length by the 12th-century Danish historians [[Saxo Grammaticus|Saxo]] and  [[Sven Aggesen]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

Offa is also mentioned in  the ''Annales Ryenses'', ''Vita Offae Primi'' and  ''[[Vitae duorum Offarum]]''.

According to ''Widsith'' and the Danish sources, Offa successfully conquered the [[Myrging]]s, possibly a clan of [[Saxons|Saxon origin]], and incorporated their land into Angle or Danish lands, by slaying two Myrging princes in single combat and installing himself as their king.

It is possible that the Offa mentioned in ''[[Beowulf]]'' (lines 1949 and 1957) and married to [[Modthryth|Modþryð]], a lady of murderous disposition, is the same person.<ref name="klaeber">{{cite book|last=Klaeber|first=Friedrich|title=Beowulf and the [[Fight at Finnsburg]]|year=2008|publisher=U of Toronto P|isbn=978-0-8020-9567-1|pages=222–24|author-link=Frederick Klaeber|editor=R.D. Fulk |editor2=Robert E. Bjork |editor3=John D. Niles|chapter=1931b-62: Digression on Fremu and Offa}}</ref>

==Legend==
[[File:Beowulf - Offa.jpg|thumb|left|Offa's name in ''Beowulf'']]
In the narrative of Saxo, Uffi is said to have been dumb or silent during his early years.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} His aged and blind father, King [[Wermund]] believed him to be a simpleton and in order to preserve his son's position as king had him marry the daughter of [[Freawine]] (a neighbouring warlord/king) so that Freawine would assist Uffi when he became king.  However, the plans did not come to pass, as Freawine was killed by a  Myrging warlord called [[Eadgils of the Myrgings|Eadgils]]. Wermund subsequently raised Freawine's sons [[Ket and Wig]] as his own.  The two would eventually cause great dishonour to the Angles when they ambushed Eadgils in a forest as he walked alone and slew him.

The surrounding peoples began to mock the Angles, accusing them of cowardice and dishonour. Eventually the neighbouring Saxons decided that Wermund was too weak to resist their requests for him to surrender his kingdom, and they sent their emissaries to Wermund's court.  There they proceeded to mock the blind man, prompting Wermund to challenge their king to a duel&nbsp;— but the king stated that he would not fight a blind man.  It was then that Uffi regained his speech, and revealed that his silence had been caused by the great dishonour involved in Eadgil's death.  He promptly challenged the prince of the Saxons and one of his champions to a duel in order to regain the honour of the Angles.

Uffi's combat took place at [[Rendsburg]] on an island in the [[Eider River]] at Fifeldore/Monster-Gate, and Uffi succeeded in killing both his opponents.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

A somewhat corrupt version of the same story is preserved in the 13th-century ''[[Vitae duorum Offarum]]'', where, however, the scene is transferred to England.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

{{Kings of Gesta Danorum family tree}}
==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Literature==
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Offa|volume=20|page=15}} See [[H. M. Chadwick]], ''Origin of the English Nation'' (Cambridge, 1907), for references to the original authorities.
*Rickert, Edith. "The Old English Offa Saga."  ''[[Modern Philology]]'' 2 (1904-5): 29-77 (part 1), 321-76 (part 2). [https://archive.org/details/modernphilology02chicuoft PDF available from Internet Archive]
*Shippey, Tom. "Wicked Queens and Cousin Strategies in ''Beowulf'' and Elsewhere." ''[[The Heroic Age (journal)|The Heroic Age]]'' 5 (2001). [http://www.heroicage.org/issues/5/Shippey1.html Available online]
*{{cite DNB|wstitle=Offa (fl.709)|first=William|last= Hunt|volume=42}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-reg | leg }}
{{s-bef | before = [[Wermund]] }}
{{s-ttl | title  = [[List of kings of the Angles|King of the Angles]] }}
{{s-aft | after  = [[Angeltheow]] }}
{{s-bef | before = [[Wermund]] }}
{{s-ttl | title  = [[List of legendary kings of Denmark|King of Denmark]] }}
{{s-aft | after  = [[Dan II of Denmark|Dan II]] }}
{{s-bef | before = [[Eadgils of the Myrgings|Eadgils]] }}
{{s-ttl | title  = King of the [[Myrgings]] }}
{{s-non | reason = Abolished by [[Angeltheow]] }}
{{s-end}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Legendary kings of Denmark]]
[[Category:Anglish people]]
[[Category:English heroic legends]]
[[Category:Anglo-Saxon warriors]]
[[Category:Characters in Beowulf]]