Scyld

Scyld Sceafing appears in several places in the Lore as the first king of the Danes. He is a descendant of Sceaf, although the Flateyjarbók gives his father as Odin, and Saxo has him as son of a king named Lother. Other places make him the son of Hermóðr. Snorri makes him an ancestor of Odin as well as his son in the Prose Edda. Beowulf states he came to Denmark via a treasure laden ship and became king. When he died after a very prosperous reign, the Danes placed him on a ship laden with treasure and sent it back whence Scyld had came. Later accounts attribute a similar myth to Sceaf instead. William of Malmesbury states Sceaf came with a sheaf of corn. According to Beowulf, Scyld's son was called Beaw. Saxo has him having a son named Gram, while Snorri has a son Friedliefr. In the Ynglinga Saga, the goddess Gefion is said to have married Scyld.

It is not known whether Scyld was considered a deified hero, or a God in his own right. There is no evidence of his worship, but his tale mirrors that of Ing in the Anglo-Saxon Rune Porm, where Ing is said to have come by a wain. Too his marriage to a Goddess would seem to indicate he is of divine origin. If so, he may be of a class of fertility deities. Some scholars take the name of his son Beaw to refer to barley, while Sceaf as sheaf is apparent.