The Bayeux Tapestry

Relics, literature, statues. Of these long-ago created art works, so few can survive
the claws of time, and very few, I would say, survive as well as the Bayeux Tapestry.
While the Tapestry itself is, well, not actually a tapestry (the designs having been
embroidered after the cloths creation, rather than having been woven into the
fabric initially), the needlework is nonetheless impressive and surprisingly vibrant in
all of its colors, despite being nearly a century old. The Tapestry is made up of eight
lengths of undyed linen sewn together to make a fabric spanning nearly two
hundred and thirty feet, and twenty inches high. Dyed woolen threads depict large
scenes following the events leading up to the Norman Conquest and including the
Battle of Hastings, with tituli, Latin caption and labels, describing and explaining the
pictures and making known the intended identities of the peoples shown. There is a
legend that the Tapestry was made by Queen Matilda herself, the wife of William the
Conqueror, of whom it is said that when Matilda first rejected his marriage proposal,
he caught her by the braids and cast her to the ground, after which she would not
allow herself to be wed to any other. However, it is now believed that rather than
having been embroidered by Matilda and her ladies-in-waiting, the cloth was instead
designed and embroidered in England by commission of Bishop Odo, Williams halfbrother, for display at the dedication of the Bayeux Cathedral in 1077. The Bayeux
Tapestry can now be seen on display in the Museum of Queen Matilda, located in
the city of Bayeux, in Normandy, France.