I am looking forward to writing the Ethelmund + Githa preview chapter because I think it would be a good opportunity to figure out exactly what was what there. I seem to remember Githa telling Gunnilda that Ethelmund was the first boy she ever kissed, when they were kids, but they hated each other for years afterwards.

Githa seemed quite dissatisfied with him in the beginning, and I don't think Ethelmund was ever the dashing yet essentially worthless Sons and Lovers sort of husband, so it does make you wonder how she came to marry him. She seemed sort of headstrong, so perhaps she did it as an act of defiance against someone else... her parents or sister, perhaps, or maybe even another lover. And then she was stuck with him. But perhaps she had carried a carefully repressed torch for him all these years... perhaps it was another "Carrots!" situation. Perhaps we will never know!

How does he compare them? Well, I think he did care for Githa a lot. He really wanted to be a family man, and when she was gentle with him, he was happy with her. But with him too, I don't think Githa was really his ideal bride. I don't know that Gunnilda was THE woman he wanted all these years, but I think she was his "type". Githa was sort of tall and stick-straight and hatchet-faced, whereas Gunnilda is little and dark and curvy with big black eyes. Ethelmund seems to feel like he finally got what he wanted out of a wife... i.e. he thinks Gunnilda is really, really hot. It's a pity she has so many hang-ups about sex.