OFFA OF ANGEL

flourished 4th century AD continental Anglian ruler from whom the royal house of Anglo-Saxon Mercia claimed descent. According to the Old English poem Widsith, Offa saved his aged father, King Wermund, from falling under Saxon domination by defeating a Saxon king's son in single combat. Later Offa became ruler of the large kingdom of Angel, and he is said to have established Fifldor (probably the Eider River in the northernmost part of modern Germany) as the boundary between his domains and those of the neighbouring Myrgings. This legend inspired his namesake, the great 8th-century Mercian ruler Offa, to build a long earthwork, called Offa's Dykeparts of which are still in existenceseparating the Mercian and Welsh kingdoms. Offa of Angel is probably the same Offa mentioned in the Old English poem Beowulf.