Edith the Fair (, "Edyth the Gentle Swan"; born c. 1025), also known as Edith Swanneck, one of the wealthiest magnates in England on the eve of the Norman conquest, may also have been the first wife of King Harold Godwinson. "Swanneck" (or Swan-Neck) comes from the folk etymology which made her in Old English as swann hnecca, "swan neck", which was actually most likely a corrupted form of swann hnesce, "Gentle Swan" . She is sometimes confused with Ealdgyth, daughter of Earl Ælfgar of Mercia, who was queen during Harold's reign. Marriage Edith may have been the mother of Harold's daughter Gunhild of Wessex, who became the mistress of Alan Rufus, and Gytha of Wessex, who was taken by her grandmother to Denmark in 1068. Gytha was addressed as "princess" and married the Grand Duke of Kiev, Vladimir II Monomakh. In a 2015 monograph, historian Bill Flint claims that Edith Swanneshals and Harold were legitimately married. Flint overturns many previous assumptions made about Edith's relationship with Harold, including the fidelity of the couple's marital union and Christian devotion. Flint argues that Edith and Harold were almost certainly married more danico: the Danish hand-fast marriage custom. As evidence for this, he cites a number of dowry bequests that were made at the time of Edith's union to Harold. Flint notes that the bequests made included Walsingham Manor, making Edith in all probability "the lady of the manor" during the year of 1061, which was identified by Tudor historian Richard Pynson as the year of the foundation of the shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham. Flint claims that the union more danico of Edith and Harold is legitimate from a Catholic perspective, arguing: "The changes confirming the Sacramental nature of Christian marriage had only recently been promulgated from Rome. Throughout the Danelaw and widespread among the nobility of England who now had many such Scandinavian bloodlines, the hand-fast marriage, which was customary and widely accepted throughout northern Europe, should not be referred to as an illegitimate union." (p. 9). In fact, the Anglo-Saxons had practiced hand-fast marriage long before Danish conquest. Though Harold is said to have lawfully married Ealdgyth, the daughter of Earl Ælfgar, the widow of the Welsh ruler Gruffydd ap Llywelyn whom he had defeated in battle, that marriage in spring 1066 is seen by most modern scholars as one of political convenience. Mercia and Wales were allied