What did the Norman’s Ever do for Us? ….. all day on the wireless today

Well, they were either a marauding band of super gangsters who stole a country, or just another group who crossed the seas to come, settle and make a contribution.

The Battle

Of course, like all the other collections of people from the Neolithic through to 1066 they left their mark in a heap of ways.

And that is what BBC Radio 4 is going to explore today.

It’s already started with segments on the Today Programme and will march on across the day with a few repeats tonight.

The background to all this is the arrival of the Bayeux Tapestry to the British Museum and the official opening of the exhibition to the public.

The great, the good and others have already had sneak previews, and yesterday the King and Queen, the French President and our Prime Minister were invited to gaze on that famous tapestry which is in fact an embroidery not a tapestry. 

It came home in July and had a resting period but is now ready to be seen.is coming home.

I remain ambivalent at the event but that was for another blog and others I wrote back in July.*

So for now thank you BBC Radio 4 for what promises to be a memorable day for anyone who likes their history ….. even if it’s the Normans.

The first up will be What did The Normans Ever Do For Us? BBC Radio 4, when “Historians Dr Eleanor Parker, Professor Levi Roach and Alex Burghart MP, writers Kate Mosse, Muriel Zagha and Jade Cuttle trace how the Normans shaped British history and culture”.**

Followed by a heap of wireless articles.

And all available all day and on BBC Catch up by following the link.

Leaving me just to include from BBC Culture 'Chest-thumping machismo': The Bayeux Tapestry' reveals the bloody, bawdy truth about the Middle Ages.****

Postcards or comments to the blog will be welcomed on that question of were the Normans a marauding band of super gangsters who stole a country, or just another group who crossed the seas to come settle, and make a contribution?

Bishop Odo

P.S. and having listened to the first contribution which was What did The Normans Ever Do For Us? , if the remaining day's broadcast are as good, it will indeed be  a day to sit beside the wireless.  

That first programme was thoughtful, interesting and above all I learned something.

I had no idea that a group of English emigress settled in the Crimea at the invitation of the Byzantine Emperor and were there till the arival of the Tarters.

Pictures; bits from the Bayeux Tapestry, Ticket site, British Museum site 

*The Bayeux Tapestry, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Bayeux%20Tapestry

** What did The Normans Ever Do For Us? BBC Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0030zjy

***Norman Day, BBC Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/schedules/p00fzl7j

**** 'Chest-thumping machismo': The Bayeux Tapestry, BBC Culture, https://www.bbc.co.uk/culture/article/20260820-the-medieval-manosphere-of-the-bayeux-tapestry

It’s coming home ….. after a thousand years … well almost

Yep, that famous tapestry which is in fact an embroidery not a tapestry is coming home.

"Keep your eye on that one Harold"

That said technically it won’t be on view till September but the booking site for tickets opened today.*

But be aware that when the British Museum opened its site for Friends to obtain tickets apparently it crashed due to demand. 

I remain ambivalent at the event.  

I know it will be a wonderful experience, not least because the entire story will be on view laid flat for people to see it.  

But it begs questions of whether it really is the right thing to do.  

The “tapestry” is fragile and while every precaution will be taken including transporting it over land via the Tunnel it is very, very old.

And while I too feel the thrill of getting up close to a piece of history I question the practice of shifting such items around the world, when with modern technology its is possible to view something from your own screen, and not have to queue or been rubbing us against strangers.

Back in 1972 when Tutankhamun came to the British Museum on his holidays, we took ourselves off to see the man.  

King Tut

The line of eager lovers of all things ancient Egyptian wound around the museum forecourt and out along the street, and despite having made the effort to travel across town from southeast London it was a wait too long.

We sat in China Town, had a lunch time meal and decided we would try again another day, which of course we never did.

Did I feel disappointed?  No and nor half a century later do I feel I missed something.  True today ways of displaying these priceless objects and visitor management have improved but so has the art of the virtual display.

Book your ticket

All of which means I think I will content myself with viewing those dastardly Normans and the hapless Harold and his housecarls from our house.

Leaving the countless thousands who will be there in the museum to get their 40 minutes of history, marvel at the beauty of the tapestry/embroidery and relive the epich story.

And happily come away without an arrow in the eye.

Now the historical pedants will sniff and challenge the asserion that its a thousnad years old with the counter comment  that it ain't a thousand years old.  According to my Wikipedia "it may have been commissioned at the same time as the  Bayeux cathedral's construction in the 1070s, possibly completed by 1077 in time for display on the cathedral's dedication".**

But then when did It’s coming home ….. after 949 years have the same ring?

Bishop Odo

Location; the British Museum and our house

Pictures; bits from the Bayeux Tapestry, Ticket site, British Museum site and King Tut in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Roland Unger, 2016. Licensing; I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following licenses: GNU head Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled GNU Free Documentation License.

*Tickets from The British Museum, https://www.britishmuseum.org/exhibitions/bayeux-tapestry

**The Bayeux Tapestry, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayeux_Tapestry

Politics and the Bayeux Tapestry ....... one to listen to

Now who would have thought there were heaps of politics in that celebration of the Norman Conquest? 

The Battle

Added to which the programme, Women in Stitches: The Making of the Bayeux Tapestry, offers up so much more about the Normans, the English, and the woman who made it.

On BBC Radio 4, now and later to listen to again.

"The Bayeux Tapestry is coming to Britain in the near future. It’s among the world’s most famous works of art, but it's also a mystery: no one knows who made it. 

The stitching, though, is full of clues. Abigail Youngman seeks to reveal the truth about the lives of the women who stitched it, to unpick the secrets they left in plain sight, in the margins of the tapestry.

Bishop Odo

The Bayeux Tapestry records great historical events but its humanity is in the details: the little boy holding his mother's hand tightly as they flee their burning home; scenes of sexual violence; bawdy jokes at the Normans' expense. Scholarly opinion is divided, but some think it was stitched by Anglo-Saxon women who had experienced war and occupation first-hand.

The detail of the stitches

The main panels were probably designed by an Important Man (hence the focus on battles, on big sexy horses – surely the BMWs of their day – and political propaganda). 

But the margins of the tapestry may have been left to the imagination of the stitchers themselves: probably English women. This 'freehand' marginalia tell a different story, sometimes undercutting the message of the Norman conquerors in surprising ways. 

We can imagine the camaraderie and humour of the women sewing it, talking, about their personal tragedies, the terror they survived, the soldiers who were husbands and sons.

That comet

Read this way, the Tapestry becomes a tantalising portrait of a group of women who are largely unrepresented in history, speaking to us vividly from a thousand years ago.

Abigail Youngman uncovers fascinating and intimate details of these women's lives with the help of Dr Alexandra Makin, Dr Daisy Black, Dr Christopher Monk, Professor Gail Owen-Crocker and Dr Michael Lewis.

Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery"*

Pictures; detail from the Bayeux Tapestry, from the Bayeux Tapestry, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayeux_Tapestry

*Women in Stitches: The Making of the Bayeux Tapestry, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001327r