7 replies to this topic

[questionmark]

The Telegraph said:

The Bayeux Tapestry has finally been finished more than 900 years after it was commissioned to mark William the Conqueror's historic victory at the Battle of Hastings



Residents of the Channel Island of Alderney have completed the concluding panels of the embroidery, which is believed to have lost its final sections.


The original 230ft-long tapestry is thought to have been commissioned by Bishop Odo of Bayeux, William’s half-brother, and was sewn in either Winchester or Canterbury in the 1070s by English needle-workers, over a period of up to 10 years.


It tracks in 50 scenes the events of the Norman conquest leading up to the Battle of Hastings, where William defeated King Harold II.

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wow, that is what I call a work preserving measure!

[ealdwita]

Ooooh goody! Another opportunity to bore the arses off UM'ers!

Firstly - it's not, strictly speaking, a tapestry - it's an embroidery. Secondly, the news article doesn't make it clear which copy the good people of Alderney have been working on. There's an 1885 replica in Reading museum, one in the University of Waterloo in Ontario (1996), and one in the making in Denmark. The original is in the Musée de la Tap***erie de Bayeux in Normandy.

There are 620 men depicted in the tapestry but only 3 women (Believed to be Edith, wife of Edward the Confessor (and Harold Godwinson's sister), and a woman referred to as 'the mysterious Lady', referred to as Ælfgyva - a common Anglo-Saxon name, and an unnamed lady fleeing from a burning house).

I have shed-loads of stats concerning the Bayeux Tapestry, each one as fascinating as the others (or boring - if you like!) but I'm pushed for time this afternoon, so I'll leave it at that. (Cue swelling murmurs of praises to God from the throats of hundreds of Um'ers!)

Edit.........Musée de la Tap***erie de Bayeux .......Are you being serious, Nanny?

Edited by ealdwita, 09 February 2013 - 02:12 PM.

[Taun]

230 feet long?... Where the heck did they plan on hanging it?... Must have been one Looooooooooooooooooooooooooong hallway!

[TheLastLazyGun]

I went to Bayeux in 1998 to see it.

The French are proudly displaying it thinking it celebrates a French victory over the English.

In fact, it wasn't a French victory.  It was a Norman victory.  And many historians actually believe that it's a clever piece of pro-English propaganda.

Edited by TheLastLazyGun, 11 February 2013 - 04:38 PM.

[Kasey2601]

ealdwita, on 09 February 2013 - 02:09 PM, said:

Edit.........Musée de la Tap***erie de Bayeux .......Are you being serious, Nanny?

*dies laughing*

I for one always appreciate your history lessons, sir!

Taun, I believe it was meant to be hung in parts, wrapping around an entire room. If what I heard was correct.

I agree, LLG, that the French have taken this on when it belongs to the Normans.

Edited by Lady Kasey, 11 February 2013 - 09:41 PM.

[Still Waters]

That tapestry would be nice to see.

[questionmark]

TheLastLazyGun, on 11 February 2013 - 04:38 PM, said:

I went to Bayeux in 1998 to see it.

The French are proudly displaying it thinking it celebrates a French victory over the English.

In fact, it wasn't a French victory.  It was a Norman victory.  And many historians actually believe that it's a clever piece of pro-English propaganda.

Well, kind of...the Normans from the Normandy won.... last I looked that was still in France despite British efforts for a whole century to conquer it...

[Kasey2601]

It's now a part of France, but it wasn't then.