Editing Sceafa (section)

==''King Sheave''==

[[J. R. R. Tolkien]] treated Sceaf in [[poems by J. R. R. Tolkien|a poem]] "King Sheave" which was published after his death in "The Lost Road" in ''[[The Lost Road and Other Writings]]'' and very slightly revised and printed as prose in "[[The Notion Club Papers]] (Part Two)" in ''[[The History of The Lord of the Rings|Sauron Defeated]]''.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Tolkien and the Study of His Sources: Critical Essays|last=Fisher|first=Jason|publisher=McFarland & Company|year=2011|isbn=978-0786464821}}</ref>

In Tolkien's treatment, a ship drifts to the land of the Longobards in the north. It beaches itself and the folk of that country enter and find a young and handsome boy with dark hair asleep with a "sheaf of corn" as his pillow and a harp beside him. The boy awoke the following day and sang a song in an unknown tongue which drove away all terror from the hearts of those who heard it. They made the boy their king, crowning him with a garland of golden wheat.

Tolkien's Sheave fathers seven sons from whence came the Danes, Goths, Swedes, Northmen, Franks, Frisians, Swordmen,<ref>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".</ref> Saxons, Swabians, English, and the Langobards.