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Mature Flâneur
The Bayeux Tapestry: The World’s First Graphic Novel
All 230 feet of it
Sometimes I’m astounded by my own ignorance. Like every other North American kid, I learned about the Bayeaux Tapestry in high school history class: it’s the famous woven cloth that depicts the story of the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. But until I saw the tapestry in Bayeux last week, I honestly did not have a clue what a wonder it is: a 230 feet/70 meter, hand-embroidered graphic novel in 58 painstakingly stitched scenes. You might think there would be nothing but tatters left of a thousand-year old bolt of fabric. But you would be wrong. It is immaculately, almost miraculously, preserved.
For the first 800 years or so, the tapestry is believed to have been carefully tucked away inside the treasury of the Bayeux Cathedral (above), and brought out only once a year on the feast of St. John the Baptist for public viewing. Outside of Bayeux, nobody knew or cared that it was there. But, from the time of the French Revolution until 1945, the tapestry was taken from place to place, and coveted by various rulers who wanted to use it for political propaganda — including Napoleon and…
