I have been obsessed by the Bayeux Tapestry for years, and I went to see it last year. I buy any books I can find about it – novels or non-fiction, and I have a reproduction I am working on. So clearly I had to read this one.
Here’s the blurb …
The story of the Norman Conquest and the Battle of Hastings as shown in the Bayeux Tapestry is arguably the most widely-known in the entire panoply of English history, and over the last 200 years there have been hundreds of books portraying the Tapestry and seeking to analyze its meanings. Yet, there is one aspect of the embroidery that has been virtually ignored or dismissed as unimportant by historians – the details in the margins.
Yet the fables shown in the margins are not just part of a decorative ribbon, neither are they discontinuous, but in fact follow-on in sequence. When this is understood, it becomes clear that they must relate in some way to the action shown on the body of the Tapestry. After careful examination, it has become clear that the purpose of these images is to amplify, elaborate or explain the main story.
In this groundbreaking study, Arthur Wright reveals for the first time the significance of the images in the margins. This has meant that it is possible to see the ‘whole’ story as never before, enabling a more complete picture of the Bayeux Tapestry to be constructed. This, in turn, has led to the author reexamining many of the scenes in the main body of the work, showing that a number of the basic assumptions, so often taught as facts, have been based on nothing more than reasoned conjecture.
It might be thought that after so much has been written about the Bayeux Tapestry there was nothing more to be said, but Decoding the Bayeux Tapestry shows us just how much there is still to be learned.
This provides background information about the time prior and after the Norman Conquest. Wright believes, like many historians, the tapestry was commissioned by Odo (William’s half-brother), but he thinks it has a different purpose – not commemorating William. He also discusses the friezes at the bottom and top of the tapestry, and how they add nuance to the main story. And finally he believes it was made by English men – former military men at that. I enjoyed looking at the tapestry and understanding its historical context.
A review
