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Making Sense of the Bayeux Tapestry

23/6/2016

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Click on image for more details about the book.
Excitement afoot, blessed readers!

​Dr Monk, my alter ego, has informed me that a new book about the Bayeux Tapestry is being launched at the big medieval congress at Leeds.  (You can click on the poster for full details about the book.)

​There are some intriguing essays in this collection, including the first ever study of the back of the Tapestry by an embroidery practitioner, Alexandra Lester-Makin.   If you look closely at the cover of the book, you will notice that it is in fact an image of the reverse of the Tapestry that you see!

​I have to say that Dr Monk's own contribution left me with a familiar sense of despair, for he writes about the naked figures in the borders.  What can you say?

​If you do feel inclined to enter his world of near depravity, blessed ones, you may find the two blog posts I allowed him to write a while back, well, I'd like to say informative, but really it's just filth. 
The Problem of the Bayeux Tapestry Erection
Verdict on the Bayeux Tapestry Erection
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Medieval Charades IV: Get off the rocky road

12/6/2016

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Above: The Harley Psalter, Psalm 4, detail of prancing horses and three wolves.  Below: Harley Psalter, Psalm 4 in full.  All images in this post by permission of the British Library: © The British Library Board, Harley MS 603, folio 2v.
Wolves, prancing horses and a man leaping from a tomb.  The Anglo-Saxon Monk takes it all in his virtuous stride as he marches deeper into the 
​picture world of the Harley Psalter.
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Go to the Harley Psalter, British Library
Go to the Utrecht Psalter

Beloved readers,

​It's been an age since I nurtured your spirit with my blessed game of medieval charades, based upon the Anglo-Saxon Harley Psalter.  I have felt your deprivation keenly.  So here I make amends by offering you my take on Psalm 4. 

For those not familiar with the concept of psalter charades, please see the information box 'What you need to know to play medieval charades', and for heaven's sake get yourselves up to date!
What you need to know to play medieval charades
The eleventh-century Harley Psalter is an English copy of the Carolingian Utrecht Psalter, produced in the ninth century.  Each of the Psalms in these great manuscripts is cleverly illustrated by focusing on individual words or phrases that appear in the text. 

So what you see is not 'narrative art' in the traditional sense, where a story progressively unfolds visually (by way of example, you might think of illustrated scenes from the Old Testament in medieval manuscripts, or your own modern comic strips), but rather you get to participate in the artist's game of 'which-bit-am-I?'  Hence, the art historian William Noel coined the phrase ‘medieval charades’, which is what you're about to play now.  Oh yes you are!

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"Get your seax out, Matthew!"

1/6/2016

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Above: Matthew's pattern-welded seax.  Right: Matthew Harffy, author of The Bernicia Chronicles.  Photos courtesy of Matthew Harffy.
The Anglo-Saxon Monk interviews Matthew Harffy, the new Bernard Cornwell, whoever he is... 
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Go to the Interview
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    Welcome, blessed readers! This is the blog of the Anglo-Saxon Monk, the alter ego of Dr Chris Monk.

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