madder plant

Marginalia
 Recording the events of September 1066
raven sketch
 

Find out about the battle of Fulford

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The battle of Fulford website

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Panel 1 - Scarborough

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  Panel 2 - Rampage through Holderness

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  Panel 3 - Preparing for battle

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Panel 4 -Confrontation

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Panel 5 - Outflanking at the ford  

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Panel 6 - King Harald enters York

Visiting Fulford

Map York

Marginalia

To add extra dimensions to the story in the tapestry, there are margins running along the top and the bottom of the main panels. These might reinforce the main narrative, provide a context for the story or describe what is going on elsewhere.

Scholars studying the Bayeux Tapestry have identified the source of many of the images. By identifying the inspiration for a large number of the scenes, the experts have demonstrated that the designer must have been based in England. They found that many had been copied or developed from manuscripts that were located in Canterbury around the time of the Norman Conquest.

 

 

The symbolism of the fox making off with the chicken needs little explanation. However it does associate King Harald with the cunning of the fox and this will be a theme developed during the battle. This icon is telling us that the fox is getting a feed now and one should be aware that the fox had many ways of getting what it wanted

The powerful wind that blew the fleet from Norway to England is shown. The same, strong wind was pushing William’s fleet back towards the coast of France. Without that wind England might have been assaulted north and south simultaneously. This image is derived from one of the first maps to show the trade winds. No contemporary imagery for the winds could be located so this one comes from an early map.

 

Read about the battle that inspired the tapestry

Panel 1 from the coloured design

The author of the content is Charles Jones - fulfordthing@gmail.com

Supported with lottery funding from:

 

launched May 2012

last updated Dec 2012

Panel 6 from the original sketch

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