Pg. 3 Shield Sheafson: He was a ‘foundling’ (an infant that has been abandoned by its parents and is discovered and cared for by others) but then became a good king (paet waes god cyning). He made Danes rich, was feared by other nations, and the world was at peace because of him (they had to ‘yield to him and pay tribute’).
Whale Road: An old kenning for the ocean. Kenning: Compound expression with a metaphorical meaning.
Shield Beow. God gave him the child (Christian reference).
Ln. 27. ‘…he crossed over into the Lord’s keeping.’ (Christian reference). When Sheafson died, his warrior band set him out to sea in a boat where “they decked his body no less bountifully with offerings than those first ones did who cast him away when he was a child and launched him alone out over the waves”. – This must just mean that when he was discovered he was found in a boat filled with treasures. It’s ironic that he was sent out into the world when he was young the same way he left it – alone, and rich. This sets up the theme of how burials honor those who die.
"God gave him a child" - almost a direct wording/allusion to Genesis.
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