ON THE LIFE AND DEATH OF EARL GOD^VINE. 251 in Snorrc she appears as Gyda ; the other two, ^Ifgyfu and Giniliild, rest, as we have seen, on very satisfactory testimony. Of the order of birth of the brothers we have very contra- dictory statements, but we can see our way toler- ably well as far as regards the three principal ones, order of the whom modern writers generally and probably ^'■°*'"^^^- arrange thus, Swegen, Harold, Tostig. This is the order in which they begin to appear in the history ; Swegen also is distinctly called the eldest by Florence,^ and as he adds immediately " alterque filius Haroldus," we may infer that he considered him as the next. But Malmesbury enumerates them in the order, Harold, Swegen, Tostig, as if Harold had been the eldest brother, but he sa^^s nothing distinctly, except that Gyrth and LeofAvine were younger than Harold. Ordericus makes Harold junior to Tostig, but that is in order to represent him as unjustly depriving Tostig of the West-Saxon earldom. On the contrary, another enemy, Saxo,^ talks of " minores Godovini filii, majorem [Haraldum, sc] perosi," in a way which must refer to Tostig, though he is not mentioned by name. Snorre, as we have seen, makes Harold the youngest of the family, but we can trust but little to one who reckons among Godwine's chil- dren the members of the rival houses, Morkere, the son of iElfgar, and " Earl Walter," by whom I suppose he means the great Waltheof, son of Si ward. Turning to another source of information, the signatures to the Charters, Swegen and Harold both appear among the great earls at the commencement of the reign of Eadward, and Harold at least possessed the rank of earl, though probably with a less extended jurisdiction, before the death of Harthacnut.^ On Swcgcn's disgrace in 1046, none of the other brothers are promoted, but his earldom is divided between Harold and their cousin Biorn : Tostiii; does not appear as one of the great earls till the death of Leofric in 1055. In attesting the charters, we find the brothers ' A. lOol, in describing the movement - Dr. Lsppenberg says that Harold under Godwine against tiie Normans. witnesses a ciiarter of Hartiiacnut as Dux. Tliierry, in describing the same event, I cannot find such an one of Hartiiacnut when he ou^bt to have bad Florence himself in the Codex Diiilomaticus, but before him, calls Harold the eldest and there is one of Bisliop Lyfing durini' his Sw^uen the second, reign (vi. (ill) signed by " Uodwiuc Dux," ' 107. and " Haral.l Dux,"
