The Bayeux Tapestry, By The Historical Events That...

The Bayeux Tapestry is a 230-foot-long enigma. Although the historical events that inspired its creation are well known, there are still many aspects of the tapestry that remain a mystery and a range of theories to explain certain contested phenomena. There is still discrepancy over the basic facts of the tapestry such as where it was made, and who even commissioned it. However, one aspect that has many interpretations are the borders surrounding the main narrative. The borders stretch, uninterrupted, above and below the main scene for almost the whole length of the tapestry. Composed of plants, mammals, birds, and occasional humans, separated with bars and plant images, some see no meaning in the borders, while others argue they are†¦show more content†¦Fox and Crow can be used as a case study to lay out the various scholar’s analyses of the fables. In the Fox and Crow, â€Å"the crow found a piece of cheese, but the fox tricked him into dropping it and ate it hims elf.† Some see this interaction from a pro- Norman point of view. In it, William of Normandy is the crow and the cheese is his claim to the crown. Harold is the conniving fox who tricks William by going around his back and asking King Edward for the crown, even after he had sworn an oath to William on sacred relics. Others see it with a pro-English point of view. In this reading the cheese is still the claim to the English throne, but now Harold is the crow. He rightly acquired the crown from King Edward on his deathbed and now William is being the sneaky one, raising an army in secret and coming to take the â€Å"cheese† back. In â€Å"The Narrative Art of the Bayeux Tapestry Master,† John McNulty has two separate readings of the fables that link together. First, he believes that all the eight canonical fables work together to convey to the viewer the main themes of the narrative and that they â€Å"supply a carefully attuned commentary on the main story.† The fables encompass themes from corruption and trickery to greed and vanity, which are all associated with the events of the