Note 1481 — Chapter XV · THE NORMAN INVASION AND THE CAMPAIGN OF HASTINGS.[1055] (continued 3)
Reading edition
Wid. Amb. 577;
“Heraldi mater, nimio constricta dolore,
Misit adusque Ducem, postulat et precibus
Orbatæ miseræ natis tribus et viduatæ,
Pro tribus unius reddat ut ossa sibi,
Si placet, aut corpus puro præponderet auro.”
Will. Malms. iii. 247. “Corpus Haroldi matri repetenti sine pretio misit, licet illa multum per legatos obtulisset.” (On the difference between these two accounts, see Appendix MM.) Both these versions make Gytha simply send; but the words of William of Poitiers (138) seem to me rather to imply that she came personally; “Tumulandum eum Willelmo agnomine Maletto concessit, non matri pro corpore dilectæ prolis auri par pondus offerenti.” So Orderic (502 C); “Mœsta igitur mater Guillelmo Duci pro corpore Heraldi par auri pondus obtulit.”