Sceafa

They decked his body no less bountifully

with offerings than those first ones did
who cast him away when he was a child

and launched him alone out over the waves.[6]

No other source relates anything similar about Scyld/Skjöld, so it cannot be known whether this is a case of similar stories being told about two different heroes or whether originally separate figures have been confused with one another.

A rite involving scyld and sceaf

A connection between sheaf and shield appears in the 13th century Chronicon de Abingdon which relates a dispute over ownership of a river meadow named Beri between the Abbot of

Æ = Æthelweard's Chronica.
ASC = Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, year 855 versions B and C. The A version omits the names Hwala, Bedwig, and Scef, almost certainly by accident, so that in that text it is Hrathra who is a son of Noah born in the ark.
Beowulf calls Heremod a Scylding and calls his people were Scyldings, which should mean Heremod was a descendant of Scyld. But that may be anachonistic usage of a common term.
Edda: The forms used indicate an English source. Of the three supposed Norse counterparts, the equation with Skjöld is obviously correct, but nothing is otherwise known about Bjárr or this particular Annarr. Seskef (that is Sceaf), in this pseudohistorical account, is son of Magi, son of Móda, son of Vingener, son of Vingethor, son of Einridi, son of Lóridi, son of

Memnon) by Tróan daughter of King Priam of Troy.^[7] Lóridi (more often Hlóridi) and Einridi are elsewhere names for Thor himself. The names Magi and Modi resemble the names Magni and Modi

given to Thor's two sons in other sources. The other names are unique to this list. It is possible that a list of names applied to Thor or connected with Thor may have been at some stage misinterpreted as a lineage or that the names of the descendants of Thor in this list were earlier all applied to sons of Thor.
WM = William of Malmesbury's Gesta regum anglorum.

Scyld is sometimes son of Sceaf and sometimes son of Heremod and a descendant of Scef. William of Malmesbury combines both versions in making Scyld son of Sceaf and Sceaf son of Heremod, but then traces Heremod's ancestry up to Strephius, son of Noah, born in the ark, who is obviously Sceaf appearing a second time with corrupt name. Asser in his Life of Alfred repeats the listing of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for this section of his genealogy except that he replaces Sceaf altogether with the name Seth and mentions nothing about him being born in the ark. Some modern translations emend Seth to Shem who was son of Noah in the Genesis account.

It is possible that name of Beaw the son of Scyld may be a variant of beow 'barley' and that in part these figures derive from rustic folklore about King Sheaf and his son Barley into which the Shield element has intruded. Perhaps a misunderstanding of Scyld Scefing as Scyld the Scefing instead of Scyld of the Sheaf led to the boat story being transferred to Scyld's supposed father Sceaf when he became misunderstood as the true first king in the dynasty. There may be confusion between Danish traditions about Scyld/Skjöld and Anglic traditions about Sceaf. There is the possibility that Bedwig son of Sceaf is a corruption of Beaw son of Scyld. Scholars disagree.

For the descendants of Sceaf, only Scyld/Skjöld, Beaw, and Heremod are certainly known elsewhere outside these genealogies, though Hwala or Gwala is possibly the Ecgwela who appears in connection with Heremod in the poem Beowulf in the phrase "offspring of Ecgwela", apparently a kenning for Danes.^{[citation needed]}

King Sheave

Tolkien's Sheave fathers seven sons from whence came the Danes, Goths, Swedes, Northmen, Franks, Frisians, Swordmen (for the Swordmen cf. 'Widsith', v. 62: "Mid Seaxum ic wæs ond Sycgum ond mid Sweordwerum"; "I've been among the [tribes named] Saxons (Daggers), Swords and Swordsmen". The form "Swordmen" is Tolkien's invention),^[clarification needed] Saxons, Swabians, English, and the Langobards.

References