Question: Ælfgifu of Northampton was the first wife of King Cnut of England and Denmark and mother to a King of England from 1035 to 1040 known as Harefoot; what did the name signify?
Context: Ælfgifu of Northampton ( 990 – after 1036) was the first wife of King Cnut of England and Denmark, and mother of King Harold I of England (1035–40).  She was Queen regent of Norway from 1030 to 1035. The Danish House of Knýtlinga (English: "House of Cnut's Descendants") was a ruling royal house in Middle Age Scandinavia and England.  Its most famous king was Cnut the Great, who gave his name to this dynasty.  Other notable members were Cnut's father Sweyn Forkbeard, grandfather Harald Bluetooth, and sons Harthacnut, Harold Harefoot, and Svein Knutsson.  It has also been called the House of Canute, the House of Denmark, the House of Gorm, or the Jelling Dynasty. Harald II of Denmark (died 1018) was King of Denmark from 1014 until his death in 1018.  He was the youngest son of Sweyn Forkbeard and Gunhild of Wenden, and was regent while his father was fighting Ethelred the Unready in England.  He inherited the Danish throne in 1014, and held it while his brother, the later king Cnut the Great conquered England.  After his death in 1018, he was succeeded by Cnut the Great.  Little detail is known about Harald II. Edmund II (died 30 November 1016), usually known as Edmund Ironside, was King of England from 23 April to 30 November 1016.  He was the son of King Æthelred the Unready and his first wife, Ælfgifu of York.  Edmund's reign was marred by a war he had inherited from his father, his cognomen "Ironside" was given to him "because of his valour" in resisting the Danish invasion led by Cnut the Great. Ælfwine Haroldsson or Ælfwine was most probably an illegitimate son of King Harold Harefoot of England.  He was probably born during the early 1030s, either in Scandinavia or after 1035 in England.  He appears in an early twelfth-century cartulary from the monastery of Sainte Foi at Conques in Aquitaine as "Alboynus" (a cognate of Ælfwine), alongside the records that he was born in London and was the son of a King "Heroldus" (a Latinised version of Harold) and one "Alveva" ("Ælfgifu" Latinised).  It is also noted that he arrived in Conques in 1060 on pilgrimage and persuaded the local authorities to rebuild the church and make him prior.  W. H. Stevenson showed the only chronologically plausible candidate for his father is King Harold Harefoot.  With Harold Harefoot's sudden death on 17 March 1040 Ælfwine was most likely left in his otherwise unknown mother's care, or even that of his powerful and influential grandmother Ælfgifu of Northampton, who may be the Ælfgifu of the record mistakenly named as his mother, rather than grandmother.  He did not lay any claim to the throne of England.  Little is known about him, but he is thought to have died in the 1070s or 1080s.  He was a grandson of Cnut the Great. Godwin of Wessex (Old English: "Godƿin" ; 100115 April 1053) was one of the most powerful earls in England under the Danish king Cnut the Great and his successors.  Cnut made him the first Earl of Wessex.  Godwin was the father of King Harold Godwinson and Edith of Wessex, wife of King Edward the Confessor. Northman (died 1017) was a Mercian chieftain of the early 11th century.  A member of a powerful Mercian kinship (clan), he is known primarily for receiving the village of Twywell in Northamptonshire from King Æthelred II in 1013, and for his death by order of King Cnut the Great in 1017.  His violent end by Cnut contrasts with the successful career enjoyed by his brother Leofric, as Earl of Mercia during Cnut's reign.  Northman is believed to have been an associate of the troublesome ealdorman Eadric Streona, who was killed with him. Svein Knutsson (Old Norse: "Sveinn Knútsson") c. 1016–1035, was the son of Cnut the Great, king of Denmark, Norway, and England, and his first wife Ælfgifu of Northampton, a Mercian noblewoman.  In 1017 Cnut married Emma of Normandy, but there is no evidence that Ælfgifu was repudiated, and in 1030 Cnut sent her and Svein as regents to rule Norway.  However, their rule was considered oppressive by the Norwegians, and they were expelled in 1034.  They imposed new taxes and harsh laws that made them unpopular.  In William Shakespeare's "Macbeth", there is a character called "Sweno, the Norways' king" based on Svein. Harold I ( 101617 March 1040), also known as Harold Harefoot, was King of England from 1035 to 1040.  Harold's nickname "Harefoot" is first recorded as "Harefoh" or "Harefah" in the twelfth century in the history of Ely Abbey, and according to late medieval chroniclers it meant that he was fleet of foot. Emma of Normandy (c. 985 – 6 March 1052) was a queen consort of England, Denmark and Norway.  She was the daughter of Richard I, Duke of Normandy, and his second wife, Gunnora.  Through her marriages to Æthelred the Unready (1002-1016) and Cnut the Great (1017-1035), she became the Queen Consort of England, Denmark, and Norway.  She was the mother of three sons, Edward the Confessor, Alfred, and Harthacnut, as well as two daughters, Goda of England, and Gunhilda of Denmark.  Even after her husbands' deaths Emma remained in the public eye, and continued to participate actively in politics.  She is the central figure within the "Encomium Emmae Reginae", a critical source for the history of early 11th-century English politics.  As Catherine Karkov notes, Emma is one of the most visually represented early medieval queens.
Answer: he was fleet of foot