Sceafa

In Origo Gentis Langobardorum the Lombards' origins are traced to an "island" in the north named Scadan or Scandan ("Scandinavia").

Other than this, Sceaf is mentioned only in chronicles tracing the lineage of the English kings, although variants are found in similar genealogies for the rulers of the Danes, Norwegians and Icelanders in the sagas.

Asser in his Life of Alfred writes instead that the pagans worshipped Geat himself for a long time as a god.

Jordanes in his The origin and deeds of the Goths traces the line of the Amelungs up to Hulmul son of Gapt, purportedly the first Gothic hero of record.

Æthelweard in his Chronica writes of Sceaf: This Scef came in a light boat to an island of the ocean which is called Scani, arms around about him, and he was a very young boy, unknown to the dwellers in the land.

Iste, ut ferunt, in quondam insulam Germaniae Scandzam (de qua Jordanes, historiographus Gothorum, loquitur) appulsus, navi sine remige, puerulus, posito ad caput frumenti manipulo, dormiens, ideoque Sceaf nuncupatus, ab hominibus regionis illius pro miraculo exceptus, et sedulo nutritus: adulta aetate regnavit in oppido quod tunc Slaswic, nunc vero Haithebi appellatur.

Est autem regio illa Anglia Vetus dicta, unde Angli venerunt in Britanniam, inter Saxones et Gothos constituta.. .

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: They decked his body no less bountifully with offerings than those first ones did who cast him away when he was a child

Asser in his Life of Alfred repeats the listing of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for this section of his genealogy except that he replaces Sceaf altogether with the name Seth and mentions nothing about him being born in the ark.

[citation needed] J. R. R. Tolkien treated Sceaf in 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 Sauron Defeated.

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.

Tolkien's Sheave fathers seven sons from whence came the Danes, Goths, Swedes, Northmen, Franks, Frisians, Swordmen,[9] Saxons, Swabians, English, and the Langobards.