fajrdrako | The Other Bayeux Tapestry...

The Bayeux Tapestry is one of my favourite things. It's a piece of art that was made about 900 years ago, a comic book in needlework, depicting the conquest of England by William of Normandy at the Battle of Hastings. The text is in Latin.

It's magnificent.

I've never seen the original, which is in Bayeux Cathedral in Normandy, and I hope to see it this year. I have numerous reproductions and books, and a collection of things with a Bayeux Tapestry motif: a coffee mug, a sweater knitted by my friend Anne, a tin box.

When Anne and Lisa went to Bayeux, long ago, she got me a needlework kit depicting a scene from the Tapestry. I was working on it when my mother was ill and dying. I never saw it again after she died. It's a happy memory of those last days of her life.

Seems I'm not the only person who was doing this sort of thing - associating working on the tapestry with a personal death. A French professor at the University of Waterloo, Roy Dugan, was working on reproducing the whole tapestry when his sons died in an accident. He not only completed the whole Tapestry (at 90% the size of the original) but added his own finale - the original is torn and the last part is missing.

Dugan said in a CBC interview:

It gives me tremendous joy and sense of accomplishment to be able to offer my version of this magnificent tapestry to a public who might never have the privilege of seeing the real thing. At the same time it is a work that has great personal significance for me. What had been a pastime became a central point in my life. I proved to myself that I could still contribute.... My sense of loss will never disappear, but the Bayeux Tapestry gave me a purpose when everything else seemed meaningless. It is dedicated to the memory of my two sons.

When I learned that this copy of the Bayeux Tapestry was on display at the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum in Almonte, Ontario, I desperately wanted to see it, and persuaded

maaseru and Beulah to go with me. Today.

Almonte is a historic town of old textile mills, one of which has been made into a museum. The museum is currently being renovated and won't be open until next autumn, but the Tapestry is on display while reconstruction continues. The friendly girl at the ticket office cum gift shop sold us our tickets (entry fee $5) and waved us into the room.

It looked like this:

The first panel shows King Edward the Confessor on his English throne:

And if I had my way, I'd show you photos of every panel of the story, but here are some samples. For instance, here is a scene showing Count Guy of Ponthieu and Duke Harold of Wessex:

The full text of that section reads HIC WIDO AD DUXIT HAROLDUM ADWILGELMUM NORMANNORUM DUCEM - "Here Guy takes Harold to Wiliam, Duke of the Normans". I am charmed by the naked couple misbehaving in the border below. And throughout the whole tapestry, the border of mythical birds, magic beasts, Aesop's fables, centaurs, lions, and dead Englishmen that decorate the edges.

In this panel, the Normans and their English guests see Halley's comet: "They marvel at the star."

The Normans prepare to invade England, carrying their armour and wine to their ships:

Charging Norman knights attack the English army:

And the section Dugan added, in black thread to contrast it with the coloured reproduction of the Tapesty, ends with triumphant William the Conqueror in Lundinium now "Rex Anglorum" - King of the English".

A view of the room the Tapestry is in, from the endpoint:

Another room in the textile museum:

A view of Almonte on a February afternoon:

The building on the left is an old building renovated as a good restaurant; they weren't open for lunch. Behind it, the Mississippi River.

We had lunch at the Robin's Nest Tea Room. I had brocolli-potato soup and a club sandwich, with tea and a butter tart for dessert.