Watch the Bayeux Tapestry Come to Life in a Short Animated Film

With the news this morn­ing that the Bayeux Tapes­try will make its first vis­it to Eng­land, we’re bring­ing back a won­der­ful lit­tle ani­ma­tion of the medieval embroi­dery that offers a pic­to­r­i­al inter­pre­ta­tion of the Nor­man Con­quest of Eng­land (1066) and the events lead­ing up to it. For­ev­er housed in France, the tapes­try mea­sures 20 inch­es by 230 feet, and you can now see an ani­mat­ed ver­sion of the sto­ry it nar­rates. The clip above starts rough­ly halfway through the his­tor­i­cal nar­ra­tive, with the appear­ance of Hal­ley’s Comet, and it con­cludes with the Bat­tle of Hast­ings in 1066. The video cre­at­ed by David New­ton began as a stu­dent project at Gold­smiths Col­lege.

You can find cours­es on Medieval His­to­ry in the His­to­ry sec­tion of our big col­lec­tion, 1,700 Free Online Cours­es from Top Uni­ver­si­ties.

If you would like to sign up for Open Culture’s free email newslet­ter, please find it here. Or fol­low our posts on Threads, Face­book, BlueSky or Mastodon.

If you would like to sup­port the mis­sion of Open Cul­ture, con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your con­tri­bu­tions will help us con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing the best free cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als to learn­ers every­where. You can con­tribute through Pay­Pal, Patre­on, and Ven­mo (@openculture). Thanks!

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Peo­ple Walked a Lit­tle Dif­fer­ent­ly Dur­ing Medieval Times: A Quick Primer

What’s It Like to Fight in 15th Cen­tu­ry Armor?: A Sur­pris­ing Demon­stra­tion

Hierony­mus Bosch’s Medieval Paint­ing, “The Gar­den of Earth­ly Delights,” Comes to Life in a Gigan­tic, Mod­ern Ani­ma­tion


by | Permalink | Comments (2) |

Sup­port Open Cul­ture

We’re hop­ing to rely on our loy­al read­ers rather than errat­ic ads. To sup­port Open Cul­ture’s edu­ca­tion­al mis­sion, please con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion. We accept Pay­Pal, Ven­mo (@openculture), Patre­on and Cryp­to! Please find all options here. We thank you!


Comments (2)
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
  • Laurence says:

    FAKE READING… or Fake news ;)
    The read­ing of this work is inac­cu­rate. There are sev­er­al pas­sages miss­ing from the sto­ry. The first being Edward’s mes­sage ask­ing his broth­er-in-law to warn William of Nor­mandy about his near death. But Harold is held pris­on­er of the Counts of Picardy. William pays the mon­ey, and in exchange asks that Harold be faith­ful to him. The lat­ter does not take account of the event, takes pos­ses­sion of the throne. And William comes to revenge on Hast­ings.
    Hal­ley’s Comet (seen in the Bayeux Tapis­series) is a bad omen for Harold.

  • Laurence says:

    Fake read­ing or fake “news” ;). This doc­u­ment is incomplète.The read­ing of this work is inac­cu­rate. There are sev­er­al pas­sages miss­ing from the sto­ry. The first being Edward’s mes­sage ask­ing his broth­er-in-law to warn William of Nor­mandy about his near death. But Harold is held pris­on­er of the Counts of Picardy. William pays the mon­ey, and in exchange asks that Harold be faith­ful to him. The lat­ter does not take account of the event, takes pos­ses­sion of the throne. And William comes to revenge on Hast­ings.
    Hal­ley’s Comet (seen in the Bayeux Tapis­series) is a bad omen for Harold.

Leave a Reply

Quantcast
Open Culture was founded by Dan Colman.