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Hi I thought it was about time to get involved in the discussion and I to begin with here is a thought for members to discuss. Great play is made on the name of Offa's Dyke because Asser (the only Early Reference to it) in a piece of major Mercian propoganda assigned the building of the said dyke to the Mercian King of the same name. However the origin of the name of the dyke could be even simpler. *Ofer is an attested placename element and means "bank or ridge", also it can mean ófer , ófor, an edge, border, the perfect discription of a dyke.The well evidenced phenonomena of back formation would explain how Asser's statement or understanding of the name became applied to the king / personal name rather than the discriptive place name element.
I am at present working on the dyke article which will be online at the Virt His / CAS website as soon as it has been editied (work load and health allowing)
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