Gripla - 01.01.2000, Side 190

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GRIPLA
The charters from the reigns of William I, William Rufus, and Henry I,
however, show that the information provided by Robert of Torigni conceming
the offspring of Walter Giffard could be inaccurate. In addition to Walter Gif-
fard I we also find a Ralph Giffard, the benefactor Montivilliers and St. Ouen,
in a charter from 1067 (Le Maho 1976:35, 39, 76); Osbert (or Osbem) Gif-
fard is mentioned as a landholder in Gloucestershire in a charter of 1111 (Re-
gesta regum II, no. 976:99; cf. William of Jumiéges 11:269 n. 8); Elias Giffard
is mentioned in a charter of 1096 (Regesta regum II, LXIa Addenda no.
379a:410); and Robert Giffard occurs in charters between 1074 and 1083
(Regesta regum I, nos 114, 192:30, 52). In addition William Giffard, whose
relationship with Walter Giffard I is unclear, served as the chancellor of Wil-
liam Rufus from 1094. Upon the death of William and the accession of Henry
I in August of 1100 he was appointed bishop of Winchester but remained
chancellor until April 21, 1101.20 William Giffard died in 1128 (Amials ofthe
Church ofWinchester.362).
Thus late eleventh- and early twelfth-century England and Normandy
abound with Giffards who in one way or another must be related to Walter
Giffard I; namely, Walter Giffard II and III, Ralph Giffard, Osbert or Osbem
Giffard, Elias Giffard, Robert Giffard, and William Giffard, and there is no
lack of candidates for the knight who tums up in Norway in 1100-1101. In
Eldjám’s stanza the Norman knight is described as „old”, which would tenta-
tively place him in the second generation of Giffards, that is, among the sons
of Walter Giffard I. It is clear, however, that some of these candidates can be
dismissed out of hand: Walter Giffard III was a minor in 1100, and William
Giffard, the king’s chancellor and later bishop of Winchester, was present in
England during the period in question.
Unlike Old Norse-Icelandic scholars, Anglo-Norman historians have not
failed to notice the presence of a Giffard in Magnús berfœttr’s retinue. In
1882 Freeman mistakenly claimed that this Giffard accompanied Magnús on
his second expedition to the west in 1102, but he made no attempt to disclose
his identity.21 Twenty-five years later the Swedish scholar Hans Toll, perpet-
uating Freeman’s mistake, identified the „Giffarðr” in Magnús’s fleet as Wal-
terGiffard II, Earl of Buckingham (Toll 1927:179), a suggestion that was ten-
20 He was not officially consecrated bishop of Winchester until 1107. See Ordericus Vitalis IV
1852:92 n. 2; Annals of the Church ofWinchester 1856:362.
21 Freeman 1882 11:451. In his reconstructions of the events that took place in England and Nor-
mandy after 1066, Freeman also consistently confuses Walter Giffard I with his son, Walter
Giffard II (Freeman 1873:305, 310-11; 1882 1:231,472,11:395; see the criticism by Round
1964:296-97).