Old English Scylding (plural Scyldingas) and Old Norse Skjöldung (plural Skjöldungar), meaning in both languages "People of Scyld/Skjöld" refers to members of a legendary royal family of Danes, especially kings. 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), by the descent of this family from an eponymous king Scyld/Skjöld. But the title is sometimes applied to rulers who purportedly reigned before Scyld/Skjöld and the supposed king Scyld/Skjöld may be an invention to explain the name. There was once a Norse saga on the dynasty, the Skjöldunga saga, but it only survives in a Latin summary by Arngrímur Jónsson.
According to Anglo-Saxon legends recounted in Widsith and other sources such as Æthelweard (Chronicon), the earliest ancestor of Scyld was a culture-hero named Sceaf, who was washed ashore as a child in an empty boat, bearing a sheaf of corn. This is said to have occurred on an island named Scani or Scandza (Scania), and according to William of Malmesbury (Gesta regum Anglorum) he was later chosen as King of the Angles, reigning from Schleswig. His descendants became known as Scefings, or more usually Scyldings (after Sceldwea). Snorri Sturluson adopted this tradition in his Prologue to the Prose Edda, giving Old Norse forms for some of the names. The following list gives the supposed succession from father to son.