Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 11.djvu/400

336 OX THE LIFE AND DEATH OF EARL GODWINE. It may perhaps be worth while, as before, to look a Httle at the way in which the story has been corrii])teil by more recent writers. The way in which it is treated by Mahnesbur^^ is very remarkable. lie casts doubt upon the whole Maimesbury's story, but dcscribes those who related it (the statement. " rumigeruli," as he somewhat contenijjtuously calls them) as placing it between the death of Harold and the arrival of llarthacnut. i[r. Ilanly, in the Historical Society's edition, observing the difference between this and the ordinary statement, proposes to read '" Cnutonis " instead of '• Ilaroldi." This is rather destroying than explaining conflicting evidence. To me it seems plain that Malmesbury or his informants saw the difiiculties which I have above mentioned as attending the version which represents God wine as acting on behalf of Harold, and put the story later in order to avoid them. As Ilarthacinit is represented as highly displeased with the proceeding, they must have conceived Godwine, Bishop Lyfing, and the " compatriotjc," who are said to have aided them, as acting on their own account. Now stories are apt to improve in the telling, and a little dexterous treatment will easily transform this Br.miton'8 vcrsiou iuto the tale which is given at such length vc-sion. jj^ Bromton. That romance-loving Abbot quotes, indeed, the connnon version, and also, as we have seen, that which implicated Emma herself ; but his own form of the story is widely different. The last form, as wc have seen, delivered us from one great crux, our jireseut narrator sends all the others after it. The deed is done after the death neither of Cnut nor of Harold, but of Ilarthacimt : the motive is Godwine's own ambition ; the sovereign ollended is of course no longer Hartliacnut, but Eadward. This has the merit of getting rid of all puzzling- questions as to (jlodwine's })Ositi()n during the divided kingdom, or as to the parental and fraternal merits of Kmma and llarthacnut. On the death of the latter jn-ince the English (!.p(;l the Danes, and send for the two ^Kthclings, sons of yKthclred ; (Judwine determinesin hisown min<l that the future King shall reign under his management, and marry his daughtei" ; he perceives that tlu; high spirit of .Klt'icd will never siibiiiil (u tliis ari-aiiLi(!nieii(, but that the