Offa (fishing)
Offa was a legendary king of fishing in the area of the same name .
Versions of his heroic deed are reported by the Danish historiographs Saxo Grammaticus and Sven Aagesen , by an English biography of the monk of the Abbey of St Albans Matthew Paris ( Vitae duorum Offarum , around 1200) and in the old English poem Widsith . In the latter, the events are relocated to England.
In the older, Anglish version of the saga, Offa is silent until he is 30 years old. As a reaction to the illegitimate claim to the throne of a Saxon king against his aging and blind father, Offa regains the language, kills the son and a gigantic warrior of the Saxon challenger on an island in the Eider with the magic sword Skræp alone and thus saves the independence of the fishing rods .
The English version calls Offa (or Uffe ) the son of Wermund, king of the western fishing rods in Warwick, England . Offa is blind until the age of seven, mute until the age of 30. Miraculously cured, he defends Wermund's rule against two challengers.
The Widsith (v. 35-44) mentions as a memorable feat of the young fishing ruler Offa in his competition with the Dane Alewih that he had fought against the Myrgingas with the sword alone on the Fifeldor (mostly identified with the Eider) and so on the border between fishing and Sueben ( Swaefe ) established.
According to an Anglo-Saxon (Mercian) chronicle, he was considered the ancestor of King Offa of Mercien . A genealogy Waermund - Offa - Angeltheow - Eomer is listed there.
In an unclear context, an Offa is also mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon heroic epic by Beowulf (V. 1944–1962); it is not entirely certain whether the same legendary figure was meant.
Later reception
In the course of the emergence of nationalism from the middle of the 19th century, Offa, called Uffe in Danish , was hyped up into a kind of Danish national hero (although Offa was king of the Angles and not a Dane), who saved his country from an overpowering enemy from the south have.
The Danish school in Tönning , founded in 1935, is named after the legendary king's son Uffe-Skolen .
The archaeological journal Offa - reports and communications on prehistory, early history and medieval archeology is named after Offa.
