Trying to find Harold, reading the Magna Carta, and going 3D: Medieval News Roundup

This week we take a look at some stories about the search for King Harold (sigh), some interesting medieval archaeological discoveries, and the wolf curse...<br /><br /><div class="storify"><iframe src="//storify.com/medievalists/trying-to-find-harold-finding-a-bladder-and-going/embed?header=false&border=false" width="100%" height=750 frameborder=no allowtransparency=true></iframe><script src="//storify.com/medievalists/trying-to-find-harold-finding-a-bladder-and-going.js?header=false&border=false"></script><noscript>[<a href="//storify.com/medievalists/trying-to-find-harold-finding-a-bladder-and-going" target="_blank">View the story "Trying to find Harold, reading the Magna Carta, and going 3D: Medieval News Roundup" on Storify</a>]</noscript></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnlVs3Mi8uo3CC4RJQycizOUFLsflYySXpOxaTze9Zm3HYrMit1jLWEFdH1xQmfHJHiH3m4eR7MzbwNpE1Ve9iFJzz04Q1YAkIdit_iQH19etrNoael5eVPuZCcRqk3mD2NnVBbTOas9c/s1600/harold+eye.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnlVs3Mi8uo3CC4RJQycizOUFLsflYySXpOxaTze9Zm3HYrMit1jLWEFdH1xQmfHJHiH3m4eR7MzbwNpE1Ve9iFJzz04Q1YAkIdit_iQH19etrNoael5eVPuZCcRqk3mD2NnVBbTOas9c/s1600/harold+eye.jpg" /></a></div><br />

Trying to find Harold, reading the Magna Carta, and going 3D: Medieval News Roundup

This week we take a look at some stories about the search for King Harold (sigh), some interesting medieval archaeological discoveries, and ...

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Is this how the Bayeux Tapestry would have ended?

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw_UdClvXRbRnqsgKeSxiApdgx-R_oyfrcaZYF-sCFWPwDIaGxR3U4p5KAej58LvSPM3le5XhqZYHBqAMLyzjgehv5tvycx1qebimPU4YccZQd0dn3wP5mHrGXC7tHG6yrtuHFsDkq4Go/s1600/final+scene+of+bayeux+tapestry.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw_UdClvXRbRnqsgKeSxiApdgx-R_oyfrcaZYF-sCFWPwDIaGxR3U4p5KAej58LvSPM3le5XhqZYHBqAMLyzjgehv5tvycx1qebimPU4YccZQd0dn3wP5mHrGXC7tHG6yrtuHFsDkq4Go/s1600/final+scene+of+bayeux+tapestry.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Alderney Bayeux Tapestry</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The famous Bayeux Tapestry ends with the defeat of King Harold's army and the flight of the Anglo-Saxon soldiers. However, most scholars believe that the original tapestry would have ended with the coronation of William the Conqueror. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Now, a community project from the British island of Alderney has recreated the missing piece of the Bayeux Tapestry. It depicts several scenes that they believe would have been in the original tapestry, including a scene where William is crowned on Christmas Day, 1066. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Professor Robert Bartlett of the University of St.Andrews tells the BBC: "It has often been pointed out that the opening of the tapestry has a figure of King Edward the Confessor enthroned, and that around the middle point of the tapestry there is an image of William's enemy Harold enthroned.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">"It would be a neat symmetry and make perfect sense of the story if the end of the tapestry had showed the victorious William enthroned, which is what the Alderney team have chosen to do. The other 'new' scenes are more speculative, but they are modelled on scenes earlier in the tapestry so look convincing."</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The recreation is now being displayed next to the original at the Bayeux Tapestry Museum in France - the exhibition will run until August 31st.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">For the full story, please visit the <b><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-28018096">BBC</a></b> or the <b><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2676791/The-Bayeux-Tapestry-finally-complete-Stunning-embroidery-goes-display-Channel-Islanders-spend-year-finishing-900-year-old-masterpiece.html">Daily Mail</a></b>.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b><a href="http://www.alderneybayeuxtapestry.com/">Click here to visit the Alderney Bayeux Tapestry Project website</a></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/alderneybayeuxtapestryfinale/sets/72157633268555940/">Click here to see more photos of the Bayeux Tapestry recreation</a></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Here is a video report about the project from last year:</div><br /><object height="315" width="560"><param name="movie" value="//www.youtube.com/v/VvExeuifUjI?hl=en_US&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="//www.youtube.com/v/VvExeuifUjI?hl=en_US&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

Is this how the Bayeux Tapestry would have ended?

The Alderney Bayeux Tapestry The famous Bayeux Tapestry ends with the defeat of King Harold's army and the flight of the Anglo-Saxon sol...

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One in the eye for history: experts still fighting over the site of the Battle of Hastings

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3Ngd7lRLHKe1vdvCWuX6NfCp4tl4UBUjnTnwDAHDy-O9NgiyC1IXcmy5zVbXzsO3PZk61PYh6L_s6ckjfAvtaG2XcZk7i5lmTGpbp5VKKTzXHJidtRk2WUMR6rBIMl9-dv9g-Ib3KBSE/s1600/Art+Blog+7.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3Ngd7lRLHKe1vdvCWuX6NfCp4tl4UBUjnTnwDAHDy-O9NgiyC1IXcmy5zVbXzsO3PZk61PYh6L_s6ckjfAvtaG2XcZk7i5lmTGpbp5VKKTzXHJidtRk2WUMR6rBIMl9-dv9g-Ib3KBSE/s320/Art+Blog+7.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>It is the most famous battle in British history, fought, as every schoolboy knows, in 1066 at a site now marked by Battle Abbey, near the town of Hastings. But while the date of the Battle of Hastings might still be universally accepted, the location has been called into question, with two experts proposing not one but two different sites for where the fighting actually took place.<br /><br />They believe that for almost a 1,000 years, the battle has been commemorated at the wrong spot, with one historian claiming the fighting actually occurred a mile to the north, on Caldbec Hill, and another stating it was two miles away, to the south, at a place called Crowhurst.<br /><br />In an effort to settle the matter for good, a group of historians assembled by the Battlefields Trust have spent months evaluating the three competing claims to decide which one is correct and they believe they are now ready to deliver their ruling.<br /><br />For nearly a millennium there has been little debate that the encounter between the armies of England's King Harold and William the Conqueror had taken place on the fields around Battle Abbey, a few miles north of Hastings, at a spot known as Senlac Hill.<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/9797985/One-in-the-eye-for-history-experts-still-fighting-over-the-site-of-the-Battle-of-Hastings.html" target="_blank">Click here to read this article from The Telegraph</a></b><br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.battlefieldstrust.com/news.asp?NewsArticleID=73&Refresh=17%2F01%2F2013+06%3A44%3A53" target="_blank">Click here to read the latest statement from the Battlefields Trust</a></b><br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.medievalists.net/tag/the-battle-of-hastings/" target="_blank">Click here to read more about The Battle of Hastings</a></b>

One in the eye for history: experts still fighting over the site of the Battle of Hastings

It is the most famous battle in British history, fought, as every schoolboy knows, in 1066 at a site now marked by Battle Abbey, near the to...

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New research on how the Bayeux Tapestry was made

<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5stAqz-7tqZ96DPKs_DCUN1o_uheDOdNwqOva5wQBbdWQV9XwQ4wDFKonXa-rNVnBfhSuX29QzMa0OqY9oPoad8yXtlK_34TVH8MhLmWd-cc5qtqs8W-uztC7NNcuoEpTlKtXikYA3o8/s1600/bayeux.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5stAqz-7tqZ96DPKs_DCUN1o_uheDOdNwqOva5wQBbdWQV9XwQ4wDFKonXa-rNVnBfhSuX29QzMa0OqY9oPoad8yXtlK_34TVH8MhLmWd-cc5qtqs8W-uztC7NNcuoEpTlKtXikYA3o8/s320/bayeux.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>A University of Manchester researcher has thrown new light on how the world famous Bayeux Tapestry was made over 900 years ago. Alex Makin –a professional embroiderer who was trained at one the country’s most prestigious institutions – says the same group of people were likely to have worked on the 70-metre-long masterpiece under the same manager or managers.<br /><br />Her conclusion casts doubt on the widely accepted theory that nuns based in different locations across England made the tapestry in nine sections which were then stitched together.<br /><br /><br />However, questions still remain over how many embroiderers worked on the Bayeux Tapestry, which is on permanent display at a museum in Normandy, France, who they were and where their ‘workshop’ or ‘workshops’ were located.<br /><br />From observing the way the stitches overlap on the back of the tapestry, Mrs Makin is also able to say in what order its different parts were sewn. The outlines for individual sections were worked first, and then filled in with colours in a set order.<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.medievalists.net/2012/11/15/new-research-on-how-the-bayeux-tapestry-was-made/" target="_blank">Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net</a></b><br /><br />

New research on how the Bayeux Tapestry was made

A University of Manchester researcher has thrown new light on how the world famous Bayeux Tapestry was made over 900 years ago. Alex Makin –...

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Who was the mysterious Ælfgyva in the Bayeux Tapestry?

A new theory has been put forward on a mysterious scene in the Bayeux Tapestry that appears to show some sort of sexual scandal that involved a woman named Ælfgyva. Joanna Laynesmith, a medieval historian from the University of Reading offers two possibilities in a new article that appears in the October issue of History Today.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSKa1PnIQERCc2mO0jcn2ony3oKs184qpMHhQUSc_kz4E3Wx3hPuej3Mfb4sC2qps9MLIkbeuR91C59mPx5-po1ko53yAga9X-_-5mKAwkDGHJ6jPdQd9Hg3NpH_CtWoMxjf0u_5LVNqU/s1600/bayeux_main2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSKa1PnIQERCc2mO0jcn2ony3oKs184qpMHhQUSc_kz4E3Wx3hPuej3Mfb4sC2qps9MLIkbeuR91C59mPx5-po1ko53yAga9X-_-5mKAwkDGHJ6jPdQd9Hg3NpH_CtWoMxjf0u_5LVNqU/s320/bayeux_main2.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br />In trying to understand ”the million dollar question” as Laynesmith puts it, several different explanations have been attempted.  Laynesmith believes that this Ælfgyva was most likely Emma, who was the wife of two Anglo-Saxon kings - Æthelred the Unready and Cnut, and was the mother of two more – Harthacnut and Edward the Confessor, or that it could be Ælfgyvva, the first wife of Æthelred.<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.medievalists.net/2012/11/13/who-was-the-mysterious-aelfgyva-in-the-bayeux-tapestry/" target="_blank">Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net</a></b>

Who was the mysterious Ælfgyva in the Bayeux Tapestry?

A new theory has been put forward on a mysterious scene in the Bayeux Tapestry that appears to show some sort of sexual scandal that involve...

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In everything we say, there is an echo of 1066

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx-IpbZ4PboLsSO7Fck9W0mRoylssSzkBOBUyf9g9aaYc7ZVNruRjBHAB0piHiWI81BALITQ-ntDm1tjM5mR86bI_i2w2qu9TZVXJ7StZGYiNJSxt8XJNDd6FcNL4NNsBcu3JBqR8qDsM/s1600/Harold_Rex_Eye_Arrow.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx-IpbZ4PboLsSO7Fck9W0mRoylssSzkBOBUyf9g9aaYc7ZVNruRjBHAB0piHiWI81BALITQ-ntDm1tjM5mR86bI_i2w2qu9TZVXJ7StZGYiNJSxt8XJNDd6FcNL4NNsBcu3JBqR8qDsM/s200/Harold_Rex_Eye_Arrow.jpeg" width="200" /></a></div>It’s Sunday, and let us hope that you are about to have lunch. As you prepare to enjoy the roast beef, it may, possibly, occur to you that but for an event on this date, October 14, centuries ago, you might be about to eat the same joint but you wouldn’t be calling it beef. That event was the Battle of Hastings (aka Senlac Hill) in 1066, as a result of which William the Bastard, Duke of Normandy, became William the Conqueror, King of England.<br /><br />The English language is unusual in that we have different names for farm animals in the field or byre, and the flesh of these animals when they appear on the table. In Walter Scott’s novel Ivanhoe, a Saxon peasant explains that the oxen, calves, swine and sheep are good Saxons tended by Saxons when alive, but turn into Norman-French when they are ready to be eaten as beef (or beeves), veal, pork and mutton.<br /><br />So, if you were to begin by asking, in Monty Python style, “what have the Normans ever done for us?” you might first reply that the most enduring consequence of the Conquest is the richness of the English language, with its Anglo-Saxon base and Franco-Latin superstructure. This mixture gives us a huge vocabulary, and many words with essentially the same meaning, yet a different shade of emphasis: fatherly and paternal, for example.<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/9606163/In-everything-we-say-there-is-an-echo-of-1066.html" target="_blank">Click here to read this article from The Telegraph</a></b>

In everything we say, there is an echo of 1066

It’s Sunday, and let us hope that you are about to have lunch. As you prepare to enjoy the roast beef, it may, possibly, occur to you that b...

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