Old English Scylfing and Old Norse Skilfing (Skilfingr) is the name of a legendary genealogical lineage or clan. Swedish kings are identified as Scylfings in the Old English poem Beowulf. In Norse sources the Skilfings (Skilfingar) are vaguely identified in the Skáldskaparmál as an eastern family (incidentally, East King was a kenning for Swedish king). In the Ćttartolur, (the geneologies attached to Hversu Noregr byggdist), 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..
In 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 Wćgmundings to which Beowulf and his father Ecgtheow also belonged. Another extended form is helm Scylfinga 'Scylfings’-helmet' and it is used to refer to Ongentheow's son Onela.
However, in the Old Norse Ynglinga saga the corresponding Old Norse form Skylfing never appears, though many of these same kings are treated there. All these Swedish kings in that work belong to the Yngling lineage.
In Norse tradition
From the Hyndluljód
The eddic poem
Hyndluljód, in stanza 16 speaks of descendants of an ancient king named
Halfdan the Old:
Hence come the Skjöldungs, hence the Skilfings,
Hence the Ödlings [Ǫđlingar], hence the Ynglings, ...
Skilfings are differentiated from Ynglings, or at least partially differentiated.
From the Skáldskaparmál
In the Skáldskaparmál, 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 son. Snorri continues with examles of famous descendants of three of those lineages follwed by: "Of the house of the Ylfings was Eirík the Eloquent (Eiríkr inn málspaki)." 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 indentified:
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 thulur found in some versions of the Skáldkskaparmál.
From the Ćttartolur
The Ćttartolur connected to Hversu Noregr byggdist are a longer variant of the genealogical passages in the Skáldskaparmál, 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 ancester 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 geneology 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 Ćttartolur 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 Sceaf (as discussed under Sceaf), 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 Ćttartolur, 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 Ćttartolur.
Variant spellings
Other anglicized spellings: Eirík: Eirik ; Eirík the Eloquent: Eirik the Eloquent, Eiríkr the Wise in Speech ; Halfdan the Old: Hálfdan the Old ; Skjöld: Skjold, Skiold ; Starkad: Starkath ; Víkar: Vikar ; Vörs: Vor.
