Gyda Torkelsdotter was the daughter of Torkel Styrbjörnsson. Consequently she was the granddaughter of the disinherited Swedish prince Styrbjörn Starke, the conqueror of Jomsborg, and Tyra, the daughter of Harold Bluetooth king of Norway and Denmark.

In 1019, she married the Anglo-Saxon nobleman Godwin of Wessex. Among their children were Harold II of England and Tostig Godwinson, who later faced each other at the Battle of Stamford Bridge.