[153] Scyld appears as Scyldwa, Sce(a)ldwa in the Chronicle. The forms correspond.
[154] See Part II.
[155] armis circundatus.
[156] For a list of the scholars who have dealt with the subject, see Widsith, p. 119.
[157] Beovulf, p. 6 etc.
[158] Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. XXIV, 259 etc.
[159] This objection to the Scyld-theory has been excellently expressed by Olrik—at a time, too, when Olrik himself accepted the story as belonging to Scyld rather than Sceaf. "Binz," says Olrik, "rejects William of Malmesbury as a source for the Scyld story. But he has not noticed that in doing so he saws across the branch upon which he himself and the other investigators are sitting. For if William is not a reliable authority, and even a more reliable authority than the others, then 'Scyld with the sheaf' is left in the air." Heltedigtning, I, 238-9, note.
[160] The discussion of Skjold by Olrik (Danmarks Heltedigtning, I, 223-271) is perhaps the most helpful of any yet made, especially in emphasizing the necessity of differentiating the stages in the story. But it must be taken in connection with the very essential modifications made by Dr Olrik in his second volume (pp. 249-65, especially pp. 264-5). Dr Olrik's earlier interpretation made Scyld the original hero of the story: Scefing Olrik interpreted, not as "with the sheaf," but as "son of Scef." To the objection that any knowledge of Scyld's parentage would be inconsistent with his unknown origin, Olrik replied by supposing that Scyld was a foundling whose origin, though unknown to the people of the land to which he came, was well known to the poet. The poet, Dr Olrik thought, regarded him as a son of the Langobardic king, Sceafa, a connection which we are to attribute to the Anglo-Saxon love of framing genealogies. But this explanation of Scyld Scefing as a human foundling does not seem to me to be borne out by the text of Beowulf. "The child is a poor foundling," says Dr Olrik, "he suffered distress from the time when he was first found as a helpless child. Only as a grown man did he get compensation for his childhood's adversity" (p. 228). But this is certainly not the meaning of egsode eorl[as]. It is "He inspired the earl with awe."
[161] See below ([App. C]) for instances of ancestral names extant both in weak and strong forms, like Scyld, Sceldwa (the identity of which no one doubts) or Sceaf, Sceafa (the identity of which has been doubted).
[162] "As for the name Scyldungas-Skjöldungar, we need not hesitate to believe that this originally meant 'the people' or 'kinsmen of the shield.' Similar appellations are not uncommon, e.g., Rondingas, Helmingas, Brondingas ... probably these names meant either 'the people of the shield, the helmet,' etc., or else the people who used shields, helmets, etc., in some special way. In the former case we may compare the Ancile of the Romans and the Palladion of the Greeks; in either case we may note that occasionally shields have been found in the North which can never have been used except for ceremonial purposes." Chadwick, Origin, p. 284: cf. Olrik, Heltedigtning, I, 274.