Gripla - 01.01.2000, Side 191

GIFFARÐSÞÁTTR
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tatively considered by Rosemary Power in 1986 (125-26).22 The Anglo-Nor-
man charters from the early reign of Henry I, however, show that Walter Gif-
fard II, who died in July of 1102, was present at Henry’s court at Easter of
1101, when he, along with William Giffard the Chancellor, King Henry,
Archbishop Anselm of Canterbury, and Queen Mathilda, witnessed a charter
on April 21 (Regesta regum II no. 524:8-9). Hence neither William Giffard
nor Walter Giffard II could have partaken in Magnús’s Swedish campaign in
the early spring of 1101 and displayed such contemptuous behavior in the
battle of Fuxema, and we have to look elsewhere if we wish to establish the
identity of Magnús’s cowardly Norman knight.
An examination of Anglo-Norman historical sources reveals a rather curi-
ous coincidence: there is yet another Giffard who distinguished himself by un-
acceptable behavior during a battle, namely, a certain „Gilfardus, known by
his father’s sumame”. The battle in question is the battle of Hastings in 1066,
in which Walter Giffard I, with one hundred soldiers, fought alongside Wil-
liam of Normandy against Harold Godwinson of England. The poem Carmen
de Hastingae proelio, possibly composed before 1072 by Guy of Amiens (xv),
tells the following story of Harold Godwinson’s last moments (ibid:35,
37):23
22 Power’s article is the most detailed and historically correct examination to date of Magnús’s
reign and of his two expeditions to the west. Bugge, too, noticed the presence of Giffard at
Magnús’s court, but he did not connect him with Magnús’s subsequent expedition to the west
(Bugge 1914:33).
23 Carmen de Hastingae proelio 11. 531-50 (pp. 34, 36; emphasis added):
Iam ferme campum uictrix effecta regebat,
Iam spolium belli Gallia leta petit,
Cum dux prospexit regem super ardua montis
Acriter instantes dilacerare suos.
Aduocat Eustachium; linquens ibi prelia Francis,
Oppressis ualidum contulit auxilium.
Alter ut Hectorides, Pontiui nobilis heres
Hos comitatur Hugo, promtus in officio;
Quartus Gilfardus, patris a cognomine dictus:
Regis ad exicium quatuor arma ferunt.
... Per clipeum primus dissoluens cuspide pectus,
Effuso madidat sanguinis imbre solum;
Tegmine sub galeeg caput amputat ense secundus;
Et telo uentris tertius exta rigat;
Abscidit coxam quartus; procul egit ademptam:
Taliter occisum terra cadauer habet.
For a discussion of the identity of the four who killed and mutilated Harold, see Carmen de
Hastingae proelio, Appendix D: 116-20.1 am grateful to Paul A. White, Indiana University,
for calling my attention to this reference.