The Scyldings (OE Scyldingas) or Skjǫldungs (ON Skjǫldungar), both meaning "descendants of Scyld/Skjǫldr", were, according to legends, a clan or dynasty of Danish kings, that in its time conquered and ruled Denmark and Sweden together with part of England, Ireland and North Germany.[1] The name is explained in many texts, such as Friedrich Christoph Dahlmann's 'Research on the Field of History' (German: Forschungen auf dem Gebiete der Geschichte),[2] by the descent of this family from an eponymous king Scyld, but the title is sometimes applied to rulers who purportedly reigned before him, and the supposed king may be an invention to explain the name. There was once a Norse saga on the dynasty, the Skjöldunga saga, but it survives only in a Latin summary by Arngrímur Jónsson.
- ^ Joan Hugo van Bolhuis, De Noormannen in Nederland, Volume 2, p. 25
- ^ Friedrich Christoph Dahlmann, Forschungen auf dem Gebiete der Geschichte, p. 386