The Tapestry and Feudal War

Introduction

The Bayeux Tapestry signifies some depictions of events causing the Norman Conquest by Norman and Saxon armies in 1066. An embroidered cloth nearly seventy meters long demonstrates the events leading to this conquest. Pictures and arts tell the main narratives of the tapestry. William the Conqueror and Harold resolve to assault England, and they guided their army to the sea, boarded boats and sailed (Bernstein 85). In England, hasting war begins; spears and arrows fill the air. Death and injuries of many soldiers come about as shown on the lower border of the tapestry. The ornament on the upper and lower borders of the tapestry features the subplots. On the tapestry, the margins figures do not shine the worry of the one in the middle panels, although they challenge and deform them. On the main narrative of the Tapestry, there are only three women depicted, Edith, the flying woman, and Aelfgiva (Campbell 130). By equating the margin female figures with those in the middle of work, those on the margins have a disruptive function (Freeman 15). The difference between the middle text and figures in the margin indicates active relationships amongst the middle text and the text in the margins. The naked body peeled of their armor lie in the margins of scenes, especially after the hasting war. In such war scenes, one would not imagine finding women; therefore, this paper focuses on the women in the Tapestry (Bernstein 88). The paper explains the scenes, where women do appear, and the role they play in these events as told by the story. The paper also analyses some narrative strategies and the role of nationalism in the scholarship on the tapestry. 

The Women

Bayeux Tapestry shows only three women, Edith, the flying woman, and Aelfgiva. On the tapestry, the female images on the center panel present the same characteristics as those in the center location. These figures incline to break up the scenes with which they exist. The tapestry demonstrates testimonial of the issues leading to England entry, invasion, and triumph of the war of hasting. It discloses more of war by organizing arms and getting into the battle, and in such scenes one would not imagine finding a woman (Bernstein 88). In the tapestry, two women only appear in the middle panel of the tapestry:

In the image, a woman named Aelfgyva, stands among two pillars which have a dog like figures moving outwards. A male figure with a crown extends his arm towards the woman reaching the woman’s face with his hand. In response, Aelfgyva extends her hand to him, while she defends her elbow with her body. Her body looks small and thin compared to that of the man even though she dresses heavily. The man’s hand on the hip acquires a greater space occupied by Aelfgyva. The man’s long mantles lead out to environ him. The man’s feet close the distance among pillars and the building marked by door with the crosses symbols

The man’s body appears to convey the evildoing of his consecrates that he is constructing by getting on a woman’s arena. This scene may reconstitute a sexual assault. The man may be causing a pass or could be smacking Aelfgyva for having evil thoughts. The posture of open arms for the outer function signals the acceptance, and this means a form of some sexual liberty. 

The beneath border figure that follows these scene signs the relationships among the man and Aelfgyva as sexual partners. Beneath the pillars near to the man, there is a figure of a nude man. The private parts of the nude figure are quite informative, and they hang visible between the figure’s legs. With the legs widespread, the right hand on his hip, and the left hand extended with the palms wide open, the nude man’s figure forms the reflector of the man with tonsure. The figure of the nude man tends to direct towards the tonsured man. This border image eludes any equivocalness on the figures on the main tapestry panel.

The flying woman appears in the middle of the panel the same way Aelfgyva has done. An artist clearly displays the long and stylish cut in the flying woman’s sleeves which suggest her social high class. The panel tone brings up the feeling of panic and contrasts to Aelfgyva’s panel. She flies from her lit with the flames house holding the hand of her son. She wide spreads her fingers raising her hand in a shock (Camille 148). The figures of both the flying woman and her child are significantly small compared to the male figure, whose height halves are as the height of the house. 

Some artistic details place the two women in the panel’s middle position. Neither Aelfgyva nor the flying woman deflects the primary theme of the Bayeux Tapestry. The women on the tapestry serve to underline in a pure minor way the effects of the battle for the population. Heavily clothing of the women despite their situation stabilizes the scenes where they appear. Though Aelfgyva seems to have an unfitting kinship with the tonsure man, we do not see her engrossed in the relationship. We encounter the flying woman burning in her house; rather it looks together with her son, they will get away from fire. Neither of the two women appears to undermine the victorious nature of William’s invasion. 

Three female figures coupled with a male counterpart make up the depictions presented by Bayeux in margins of the tapestry. The first couple comes along beneath an exceptionally well-cultured scene, in which Guy and his colleague Harold move to meet William. It is clear in this scene that Guy, who has assumed Harold as a prisoner, reverses him over to William. Although the images in the main tapestry panel indicate a relatively quiet interaction; the images in the border explode this visual peace with a strike of the tense scene of clogging wildness.

The nude man beneath the margin of the tapestry, in an apparent state of stimulation, moves toward the woman with the hands widely stretched (Camille 146). The woman bows slightly forwarding one arm lifted to her head, with the other partly hiding her private part. The woman feels not protected in the presence of the man. She depicts this by partly covering her private part.

The artist displays the second female image on the top margin of the panel of the tapestry, in which there are the erected Norman soldiers standing; afterwards in the panel the soldiers start to charge and tease to assemble Harold to the war. The margin images on the tapestry, then, come out during the last minutes, while the war begins. The second couple brings out both women’s figures with the hands outstretched. The female figure appears to run onwards to recognize the male figures, who give some bag to the woman; this may be the foils of war. Though naked, he holds a large axe and still puts on a helmet (Camille 148). The third couple depicts the man on the floor charging the woman; and his arms are being close to his body, yet ready to clutch. The woman, whose one knee is being on the floor, bends backwards with her both arms widely outstretched. She directs a finger to the man in a motion of warning. 

Like the initial couple, the second couple together with the third couple, appears to show on a nonlinear relationship in the middle scenes of the tapestry panel. The second couple appears on the top of troops clumped together who seem not to head forwards in any haste. Although the troops in the tapestry’s main panel tend to move from the East to the West, the border man tends to move reversal near the woman, implying his return. The figures of this return of the soldier may work as a visual anticipation for the soldiers ready to get into the war that implies William’s sureness that after the war the other soldiers will get home meliorated to their women who in return will recognize them with open hands. By the counterpoint, the third female couple comes out over the soldiers who stand further apart, and their legs raised high to the air as they start to jog. The scene of the primary panel depicts the progression of walking, jogging, and galloping to meet Harold’s soldiers in the war (Bernstein 86). If one compares the figure in the border of the man against the Norman troops, the impending sexual harassment of the woman issues a caution of the impending battle to Harold’s troops. In the counterpoint to accumulate the energy of the middle scene, where the troops exist not engaged to the war, these nude figures in the tapestry margins destroy this energy. The center of their activity peels on their path to sexual dealings whether reciprocally desired. The margins with female figures show the women as insecure, much more than the flying woman or Aelfgyva. These women’s figures in margins, in the state of nudeness, have nothing to guard them against the men’s approaches (Bernstein 88). The female images on the borders without clothes show the women as a sexual machine, always on the verge of the men’s desire. Moreover, the action of the nude couples causes instability to the momentary quietness in the events of the middle panels in the circle, where they come out from, and prefigures the actual confusion of the war to come. The images on the margin elude what the middle panels only propose prompting the reader graphically that the battle has no victory as the middle panel might insinuate (Camille). These margin figures in such a way interrupt the main theme of jubilation of an encroachment. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, the margin figures burst the main themes of the middle panels. The discussion between the figures of the middle panels and margins permits for handling the themes digressively to those from the text or even fought (Campbell 145). Thus, while the Bayeux tapestry lionizes an encroachment, the margins depict a graphic, to a greater extent, as a less calm version of cases. The margins serve to disturb the main themes of war and religion of the central panels of the tapestry. Indeed, the images on the margins demonstrate such scenes that are the status as the marginalized figures grant for a certain exemption from the ideological worry that we find in the middle panels. Also, the images on the margins tend to disrupt the fixed main themes in the middle panels (Bernstein 88). The images on the margins demonstrate a scene which portrays the possibility for instability in the middle panel; the images on the margin undercut the main themes of the middle panels. The naked figures that appear in different scenes may display a scandal that has occurred during that time and had been well known.