The Bayeux Tapestry?

Phil_aka_Pip

We should make tapestries of Poitiers, Crecy &c and send them to France?

VimFuego

Phil_aka_Pip said:

We should make tapestries of Poitiers, Crecy &c and send them to France?

be fair phil, the tapestry was made to commemorate and help people remember a remarkable and unusual event; France beating us at something. 

ICBM

guitars4you said:

my granddad fought at Monte Casino - he died when I was around 2 - but family stories state he 'said it was a hell hole'

What was so ridiculous about it is that bombing the monastery actually made it worse - the Germans were able to turn the rubble into a much stronger defensive position than the building would have been, even if they had fortified it... and in fact, they had honoured an agreement not to.

There were other cases where more junior commanders ignored instructions not to destroy historic buildings too.

It could have been worse - the Allies often at least tried to take some care. The Nazis actively destroyed cities and cultural sites - both Paris and Prague were ordered to be demolished before they were liberated, and were only saved because the local governors refused to carry it out. Warsaw was not so lucky - although it's been rebuilt.

It's actually amazing how much - including the Bayeux Tapestry - has survived, when you think of the history of Europe over the last thousand years.

Sassafras

Kilgore said:

Can you get a T Shirt with it printed on from the gift shop?

Yes, but only for the 'larger gentleman'.

CHRISB50

I saw it on a school trip to France as a child but I don't really remember it.

Having spent such a long time learning about the Norman invasion at school I wouldn't mind having another look .

Kilgore

Fretwired said:

Interesting fact: the Nazis believed the tapestry was an important Aryan artefact (the Normans being Vikings) so Himmler order the SS to seize the tapestry and take it to Berlin. Bletchley Park decoded the signal and got the local French resistance group to seize and hide it from the Nazis. I just heard this story on the radio.

Are you sure they were talking about the Tapestry, not Van Klomps Fallen Madonna with the Big Boobies?

thecolourbox

I spilt some of my American chicken risotto on it when I saw it. There was Jambalaya on the Bayeux

munckee

VimFuego said:

Phil_aka_Pip said:

We should make tapestries of Poitiers, Crecy &c and send them to France?

be fair phil, the tapestry was made to commemorate and help people remember a remarkable and unusual event; France beating us at something. 

Aside from the fact we were NOT beaten by the french (see earlier posts) that would involve admitting we could do tapestry!

proggy

If it's displayed at The British Museum I'll go and have a look, being as I only live up the road it would be rude not to.

chillidoggy

VimFuego said:

Phil_aka_Pip said:

We should make tapestries of Poitiers, Crecy &c and send them to France?

be fair phil, the tapestry was made to commemorate and help people remember a remarkable and unusual event; France beating us at something other than football or rugby.

FTFY.

scrumhalf

chillidoggy said:

 When I visited the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, I was mightily impressed with the building's architecture, but not with the shite inside it, so maybe I'm a just a philistine.

As a museum of comedy I thought it was highly impresseive. As for the artistic merit of, for example, rats' teeth on a cloth and an assortment of gardening implements in the back of an Austin Allegro estate, well, what a load of bollocks.

Winny_Pooh

On a related note this is the most beautiful tapestry I've ever seen. Cluny museum in Paris.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lady_and_the_Unicorn

not_the_dj

#notactuallyatapestry

ChuckManual

proggy said:

If it's displayed at The British Museum I'll go and have a look, being as I only live up the road it would be rude not to.

As a Hastings boy, born and bred, I'm rather hoping it'll be displayed somewhere in our town (we have a Jerwood gallery, don't-y'know...) or, at a push, up the road at Battle Abbey.

Dominic

munckee said:

chillidoggy said:

Is supposedly to be displayed in Britain after 'months of talks between culture departments'.

If you haven't already seen the tapestry, it's basically a fucking great long, single piece of embroidered piece of cloth which tells the story of an invasion of England by, you guessed it, the French.

Personally, I was totally underwhelmed when I saw it, frankly I've seen more impressive works of art by local 'artists' on walls in Margate. Mind you, I've also seen the Mona Lisa, and I found that to be a bit of a let down. When I visited the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, I was mightily impressed with the building's architecture, but not with the shite inside it, so maybe I'm a just a philistine.

So, will you be going to see the tapestry when it arrives?

We were never conquered by the french FFS, they were norsemen (normans) who were given a bit of france to stop them taking paris.  Plus they defeated the saxon's who were german anyway.  conquered by the f'cking french indeed! : )

Absolutely correct ..........it's a great document albeit woven but a fantasy ....Harold Godwinson did not die poetically from an arrow in the eye.......he was hacked and bludgeoned to death 

AlexC

I’d rather stick an arrow in my eye than go and see it tbh.

ICBM

Dominic said:

Absolutely correct ..........it's a great document albeit woven but a fantasy ....Harold Godwinson did not die poetically from an arrow in the eye.......he was hacked and bludgeoned to death 

It's not impossible it was both. If the arrow wound wasn't immediately fatal - and it doesn't have to have been, King Henry V survived something very similar just below the eye - he would likely have been in no fit state to defend himself.

Battlefield deaths were generally horrific and not at all instantaneous until the advent of explosives.

thecolourbox

I love the idea that when the soldiers got lost they saw a sign for Battle and thought.... Oh yeah must be there

Bridgehouse

ICBM said:

Dominic said:

Absolutely correct ..........it's a great document albeit woven but a fantasy ....Harold Godwinson did not die poetically from an arrow in the eye.......he was hacked and bludgeoned to death 

It's not impossible it was both. If the arrow wound wasn't immediately fatal - and it doesn't have to have been, King Henry V survived something very similar just below the eye - he would likely have been in no fit state to defend himself.

Battlefield deaths were generally horrific and not at all instantaneous until the advent of explosives.

I understand decapitation by sword or axe is relatively instant

EricTheWeary

Dominic said:

munckee said:

chillidoggy said:

Is supposedly to be displayed in Britain after 'months of talks between culture departments'.

If you haven't already seen the tapestry, it's basically a fucking great long, single piece of embroidered piece of cloth which tells the story of an invasion of England by, you guessed it, the French.

Personally, I was totally underwhelmed when I saw it, frankly I've seen more impressive works of art by local 'artists' on walls in Margate. Mind you, I've also seen the Mona Lisa, and I found that to be a bit of a let down. When I visited the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, I was mightily impressed with the building's architecture, but not with the shite inside it, so maybe I'm a just a philistine.

So, will you be going to see the tapestry when it arrives?

We were never conquered by the french FFS, they were norsemen (normans) who were given a bit of france to stop them taking paris.  Plus they defeated the saxon's who were german anyway.  conquered by the f'cking french indeed! : )

Absolutely correct ..........it's a great document albeit woven but a fantasy ....Harold Godwinson did not die poetically from an arrow in the eye.......he was hacked and bludgeoned to death 

apparently the bit with an arrow in the eye is a later repair so possibly not what was on the original Bayeux tapestry ( which is embroidery, not tapestry and also apparently not made in Bayeux). Despite the Radio 4 news today calling them French the Normans weren’t French, otherwise we would have always called them French and not Normans. 

It it would be interesting to see as an historical artefact, I guess.