In
Old English several kings who are generally identified as Ynglings are called
Scylfings. The genealogy is given as: Ohthere (
Ottar) also occurs as the father of Aedgils (
Adils) in
Ynglingatal. There Skilfing (
Skilfingr) appears as a synonym of Yngling, in a line on
Egil, the father of
Ottar, so that Ongentheow is considered identical to
Egil. Likewise in the
Skáldskaparmál the Scylfings are described as an eastern family and
East King was a conventional
kenning for a Swedish king. However, in the , (the genealogies attached to ''''
), the Skilfings are of Norwegian origin and include a family identified as Skjöldungs. In the eddic poem Grímnismál
(stanza 55), Skilfing'' appears as one of
Odin's names, the information there also appearing in the
Gylfaginning..
Beowulf In the Old English poem
Beowulf, the word
Scylfing occurs twice in the singular and twice in the plural. For alliterative purposes the name could be extended, such as the form
Heathoscylfing 'Battle-Scylfing', which occurs once in the singular and twice in the plural. A Scylfing whose name is partly missing but ends in
-ela married the sister of
Hrothgar and
Halga. Specifically identified as Scylfings are
Ongentheow, king of Sweden, and by extension his subject
Wiglaf son of
Weohstan. Wiglaf and Weohstan belonged to the family of the
Wægmundings to which
Beowulf and his father
Ecgtheow also belonged. Another extended form is
helm Scylfinga. This literally means 'Scylfings'-helmet'; it is a
kenning meaning both "ruler of the Scylfings" and "protector of the Scylfings". The
Beowulf poet uses it to refer to Ongentheow's son
Onela.
In Norse tradition From the The eddic poem , in stanza 16 speaks of descendants of an ancient king named
Halfdan the Old:Hence come the
Skjöldungs, hence the Skilfings, Hence the Ödlings [], hence the Ylfings, ...
From the In the ,
Snorri Sturluson speaks of the second group of nine sons of Halfdan the Old, from whom many families of legend descend, one of these sons being
Yngvi, purported ancestor of the Yngling lineage. But neither Skylfings or Skjöldungs are specifically derived from these sons. Snorri continues with examples of famous descendants of three of those lineages, followed by: "Of the house of the
Ylfings was Eirík the Eloquent ()." But Ylfings have not been previously mentioned. Then follows the names of four ancestors of four lineages not descended from Halfdan, which include Yngvi and the Ynglings a second time. There is obvious confusion or corruption in this passage or its source. The fourth lineage is identified: One war-king was named Skelfir; and his house is called the House of Skilfings: his kindred is in the Eastern Region. A connection with the east might mean a connection to Sweden, but the vagueness of expression suggests Snorri knows no more about these Skilfings than he has written. Snorri also gives
Skilfing as a kenning for "king" and it appears as a kenning for "sword" in the found in some versions of the .
From the The connected to are a longer variant of the genealogical passages in the , also speaking of Halfdan the Old and lineages descended from him and of other notable lineages, but in much greater detail. In this list of the sons of Halfdan, Yngvi the ancestor of the Ynglings is missing and Skelfir the ancestor of the Skilfings appears in his place. This might be a remembrance of an earlier identity or connection of the Swedish Ynglings and the Swedish Scylfings in
Beowulf. But nothing in the following genealogy is
necessarily Swedish though possible Swedish parallels do appear, particular the names Alrek and Eirík as discussed below. There are many oddities in this account. It claims Skelfir was king of Vörs (
Vǫrs), modern
Voss in northern
Hordaland in southwestern Norway, but Halfdan's inheritance was in southeastern Norway. Skelfir was the father of Skjöld (
Skjǫldr). The account ends by saying that lineage of Skelfir was called the Skilfing lineage or the Skjöldung lineage, seemingly identifying the two. But Skjöldungs are normally the legendary royal family of the rulers of
Denmark and no connection with Denmark is made here. Indeed, the
Ættartǫlur later twice gives a quite different list of descendants of the Danish Skjöld who is there made a son of Odin as commonly in Norse texts. Skjöld as son of Skelfir might be related to English traditions of
Scyld being a son or descendant of Sceafa (as discussed under
Sceafa), though here too (at least in
Beowulf) the connection is to Danish matters, not to Norway. This Norwegian Skjöld, ancestor of the Norwegian Skjöldungs, is father of Eirík, father of Alrek (
Alrekr), father of Eirík the Eloquent, whom the
Skáldskaparmál presented as an Ylfing. These two mentions are the only occurrences of Eirík the Eloquent in Norse texts. But what seems to be the same figure appears prominently in book 5 of
Saxo Grammaticus'
Gesta Danorum as Ericus disertus. This Ericus disertus is indeed a Norwegian, but his father is not named Alrek but rather Regnerus pugilex, that is Ragnar the Champion. The
Gesta Danorum then somewhat forcibly identifies Ericus disertus with Eirík, a legendary king of Sweden, a king who in the
Ynglinga saga and elsewhere has an elder brother (rather than a father) named Alrek. See
Alrek and Eirík for details. In the
Ynglinga saga the mother of the Swedish kings Alrek and Eirík is named
Skjálf, which might also be an eponym for Skilfing. Returning to the , there Eirík the Eloquent is father of Alrek, father of Víkar (
Víkarr), father of Vatnar. This Víkar is the famous Víkar, king of Hördaland, who was sacrificed to Odin by
Starkad. The chain of descent from Alrek to Víkar to Vatnar is also found in
Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka ('The saga of Hálf and his heroes'). However
Gautreks saga gives an entirely different ancestry and different descendants to Víkar. See
Víkar for details. This genealogy may have been based on attempts to ascribe a Norwegian origin to both Swedish Scylfings and Danish Skjöldungs and also be related to Saxo's account of the Norwegian Ericus desertus. If so, as it stands, it has been edited to remove material that would obviously conflict with the standard genealogies of the Skjöldungs and Ynglings which also appear in the . == See also ==