A medieval historian believes he has discovered a previously unacknowledged depiction of a penis on the renowned Bayeux tapestry.
The tapestry is a 70-metre-long embroidered depiction of the Norman conquest of England in 1066 (being embroidered, it is not technically a tapestry). It contains 58 distinct scenes, with 626 people and 202 horses. It is unknown who created it, but it is believed to have been made for William the Conqueror, who led the Normans in defeating England’s Anglo-Saxon dynasty.
The artefact is housed in a museum in Normandy in France.
In 2018, an Oxford medievalist, Prof George Garnett, said that he had identified 93 depictions of penises in the work, on both men and horses. Genitalia had not hitherto been a preoccupation of those studying it. In recent days, his count has been challenged by fellow historian, Dr Christopher Monk. Dr Monk believes he has found a penis protruding from the tunic of a man running holding weapons. Prof Garnett argues that the object is intended as the sheath of a dagger.
While this might provoke lewd giggles, both scholars maintain that the matter is a serious one, giving insights into the medieval mind. Says Prof Garnett: “The whole point of studying history is to understand how people thought in the past. Medieval people were not crude, unsophisticated, dim-witted individuals.”
Prof Gravett believes that aside from demonstrating technical skill and attention to detail in the embroidery, the depictions convey coded comment on the conquest. He notes, for example, that the genitalia shown on the horse belonging to Willam are noticeably larger than that depicted on the horse of his rival, the Anglo-Saxon king Harold Goodwinson.
Image: Daniel R. Blume from Orange County, California, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons