Scyld Scefing is a fictional character in the epic poem Beowulf. He is a Danish king, progenitor of the legendary Danish royal lineage known as the Scyldings. He is the counterpart of the Skioldus or Skjöldr of Danish and Icelandic sources. In the opening lines of Beowulf, Scyld is called Scyld Scefing, which might mean Scyld descendant of Scef, Scyld son of Scef, or Scyld of the Sheaf; it is never explained. In any case, the story of a child in a boat, which elsewhere applies to Scef applies to Scyld in Beowulf. After relating in general terms the glories of Scyld's reign, the poet describes Scyld's funeral, how his body was laid in a ship surrounded by treasures, the poet explains:
No less these loaded the lordly gifts,
thanes' huge treasure, than those had done
who in former time forth had sent him
sole on the seas, a suckling child.
No other source relates anything similar about Scyld or Skjöldr, 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. Axel Olrik in 1910 suggested a parallel "barley-figure" in Finnish Pekko, in turn connected by Fulk (1989) with Eddaic Bergelmir.
References
- R. D. Fulk, An Eddic Analogue to the Scyld Scefing Story, The Review of English Studies (1989).
