In a month’s time, people from all over the world will be queuing up in Central London to get a look at a 70-meter-long band of parchment-colored cloth. Along its length, this textile is hand-stitched with images rendered in woolen threads in terracotta, gold and blue. The images on the fabric can at first appear clunky and cartoonish – like a Medieval comic book – but look closer and you will discover intricate depictions of political drama in kings’ courts, the clash of military hardware and innocent civilians fleeing as their homes burn.
This is the Bayeux Tapestry, which tells the story of the Norman Conquest: how William, the Duke of Normandy, defeated Harold Godwinson, who had been crowned King of England earlier that year. When it goes on display at London’s British Museum on Sept. 10, it will be the first time it has been seen in the U.K. in its nearly 1,000 year existence.
