Editing Sceafa (section)

===In ''Beowulf''===
Older than these is the Old English poem ''[[Beowulf]]'' which applies the story of the boy in the boat instead to the Danish hero [[Scyld]] ([[Old Norse]] ''Skjǫldr''), the ancestor of the legendary Danish royal lineage known as the [[Scyldings]] (Old Norse ''Skjǫldungar''). In the opening lines of ''Beowulf'', he is given the epithet ''Scefing'', which might mean 'descendant of Scef', 'son of Scef', or 'of the sheaf'.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Scyld and Scef: Expanding the Analogues|last=Bruce|first=Alexander M.|publisher=Routledge|year=2014|isbn=978-0815339045}}</ref> The poem itself does not elaborate. But 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:
<blockquote>They decked his body no less bountifully<br />
with offerings than those first ones did<br />
who cast him away when he was a child<br />
and launched him alone out over the waves.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Beowulf|last=Davis|first=Gerald J.|publisher=Lulu.com|year=2013|isbn=978-1304304919}}</ref></blockquote>

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.