The Bayeux Tapestry is now out of the protective box it was packed in for its top secret crossing of the Channel and according to French Culture Minister Catherine Pégard, who is a native of Normandy, it is in a “wonderful state.”
Much of the stitched masterpiece, which is actually coloured yarn embroidered on linen rather than a woven tapestry, is currently covered up in giant polyester sheeting, to protect it from light damage.
Yesterday, over 18 painstaking hours, teams of French and British conservators and British Museum staff unfurled the 70-metre long artwork from the folding stand where it had been concertinaed, surrounded by protective mattress-type padding.
It will be kept under a cover to protect it from exposure to light until the exhibition, but one section of the tapestry was uncovered for the French delegation and the press to view. It’s from the early part of the woven story when William, Duke of Normandy, not yet the Conqueror, is on his throne sending messengers to free the future King Harold from captivity in France.
When it’s ready, the tapestry will be placed flat on its back inside a custom-made glass case. When the exhibition opens, visits will be timed, which each ticket-holder getting 40 minutes to walk the 70 meters (230 feet) of the tapestry. There won’t be much time to examine the scenes, and I imagine there will be a bottleneck around the iconic depiction of King Harold killed with an arrow to the eye at the Battle of Hastings.
That arrow, by the way, may well be a later addition. There are drawings of the tapestry made shortly after it was created, and there is no arrow in those drawings. According to Professor Michael Lewis, curator of the British Museum’s Bayeux Tapestry exhibition, Harold being shot in the eye became part of the story in the 12th century, and the arrow was an interpolation added during a 19th century restoration to make the tapestry match the legend.
An Outsider’s view from when the tapestry was made (Gesta Hammaburgensis, ~1075AD) does not mention the arrow either. However, I am not convinced that Odo –Williams brother– had more reason not to mention or make up the arrow than any drawings of the tapestry could.
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Bk. III.51: “About that time a memorable incident happened in England, and its magnitude, and that ancient times England was subject to the Danes does not allow us to leave out the sum of events. After the death of Eduard the most holy king of the English, as the principals contended for the kingdom, Harald [Hardrada], an English duke and evil man, got hold of the scepter. However, as his brother by the name of Tosti heard about his failure, he got help from Harald as king of the Norse and from the king of the Scots, however, that Tosti, the king of the Irish, and Harold with all company got killed by the English king [at Stamford Bridge]. Hardly eight days went by, as they say, and it happened that William, who due to his awry bloodline had bastard as cognomen, set over from Gaul to England, bringing on war to the tired victor. Here, the English who previously had been victorious, were beaten by the Normans and utterly triturated. Harold got killed, and in consequence, about hundred thousand of the English. To revenge god, whom the English had offended, the victorious bastard expelled almost all those clerics and monks, who did not live by a particular rule. After that free from scandal, he imposed the wise Lanfranc as doctor of the church, whose fervor first in Gaul and later in England brought many to divine obedience.”
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