Note 74 — Lohengrin

Scaf is the high German “Schaffing” (barrel), which leads Leo to assume, in connection with Scild’s being called Scefing, that he had no father Sceaf or Schaf at all, but was himself the boy cast ashore by the waves, who was named the “son of the barrel” (Schaffing). The name Beowulf itself, explained by Grimm as Bienen-wolf (bee-wolf), seems to mean originally (according to Wolzogen) Bärwelf, namely Jungbär (bear cub or whelp), which is suggestive of the saga of the origin of the Guelphs (Ursprung der Welfen, Grimm, II, 233), where the boys are to be thrown into the water as “whelps.”