Editing Valinor (section)

=== ''Beowulf'' ===

{{further|Old Straight Road}}

The passage at the start of the [[Old English]] poem ''[[Beowulf]]'' about [[Scyld Scefing]] contains a cryptic mention of ''þā'' ("those") who have sent Scyld as a baby in a boat, presumably from across the sea, and to whom Scyld's body is returned in a [[ship burial|ship funeral]], the vessel sailing by itself. Shippey suggests that Tolkien may have seen in this both an implication of a Valar-like group who behave much like gods, and a glimmer of his [[Old Straight Road]], the way across the sea to Valinor forever closed to mortal Men by the remaking of the world after Númenor's attack on Valinor.{{sfn|Shippey|2022|pp=166–180}}