Scylding: Encyclopedia II - Scylding - From Skjöld to Halfdan

Scylding - From Skjöld to Halfdan

The number, names, and order of the Skjöldung kings vary greatly in different texts until one comes to Halfdan/Healfdene.

All Old English texts call Scyld's son and successor Beaw or some similar name. (The name was expanded to Beowulf in the poem Beowulf, probably in error by a scribe who thought it was an abbreviation for the name of the poem's hero, who is quite a different person). Halfdan/Healfdene seems to be the direct son of Beaw in the poem. But all Scandinavian sources that mention both Skjöld and Halfdan put Halfdan some generations after Skjöld and make no mention of King Beaw (save for a genealogy in the Prologue to Snorri Sturluson's Edda which is taken from English traditions).

According to Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum (Book 1), Skjöld was succeeded by a son named Gram. Since gram is also a simple adjective meaning "fierce" and a common kenning for "king", it might be that Saxo or a source has misunderstood some account referring to Beaw as being gram or a gram and wrongly taken it here as a personal name. Saxo has much to tell of this Gram who becomes the father of Hadding of whom he has even more to relate, Hadding in turn becomes the father of a king Fródi who is father of Halfdan.

Snorri Sturluson in his Edda, along with some other Old Norse texts, makes Skjöld to be father of Fridleif father of Fródi under whose reign the world was at peace. Snorri mentions this Fródi son of Fridleif in the Ynglinga saga also. But in this work Snorri also introduces a second, later Fródi, said to be son of certain Dan Mikilláti. The second Fródi is known both as Fródi Mikilláti and Fródi the Peace-lover and looks suspiciously like a duplicate of the other peaceful Fródi. Snorri makes this second Fródi the father of Halfdan and of another son named Fridleif.

Saxo in Books 4–5, long after the reign of Halfdan and the fall of the Skjöldung dynasty, also introduces a king named Dan, the third king with that name in his account, whose son is Fridleif whose son is Fródi under whose reign the world achieves peace. This Fródi is also the father of a son named Fridleif according to Saxo.

There are other differing accounts of Halfdan's ancestors. The names, number, and order of legendary Danish kings are very inconsistent in extant texts and it would appear that different writers and story tellers differently arranged what tales of legendary Danish kings they knew in whatever order seemed best to them.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "From Skjöld to Halfdan", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki