r. 757-796 Anglo-Saxon King Ruler of Mercia, a kingdom in England, Offa left behind what is undoubtedly the third most well-known structure of pre-Norman Britain, after Stonehenge and Hadrian's Wall. Like the latter, Offa's Dyke is a line...

Offa (died July 26/29, 796) was the King of Mercia from 757 until his death. Prior to the rise of Wessex in the 9th century, he was arguably the most powerful and successful of the Anglo-Saxon kings, effectively ruling much of Britain south of the River...

We have been treated in some newspapers lately to word lists of teenage slang. So now we know that an idiot is a baphead - or a dipster, if you believe a different authority. An ugly person is a swamp donkey, a best friend...

AT THE END of the twentieth century, postclassical Europe basked in the warm glow cast by a revisionist historiography that emphasized the early Middle Ages' many accomplishments. This was quite an achievement for a period often disparaged as the Dark Ages. But in the...