01-06-2007, 04:00 PM
Quote:How about another example: the Bayeux Tapestry. Why are those people in authority depicted wielding clubs in battle even though the needlework was done by contemporaries and none of the combatants actually wielded clubs in this battle?
I think that was best explained as being Rods signifying Authority, rather than weapons, in the case of William and his brother Odo. The Roman de Rose, I have heard, also comments on the Mace / Rod held by Odo, but I have yet to read the passage myself.
In the case of the unarmoured foot wielding clubs later on in the tapestry, I imagine that was a fair comment.
There is also a Club type object being hurled by the Saxons at one point in conjunction with a Spear and a Man in the ranks holding what appears to be a Throwing Axe. The whole scene at that point is very varied in its depiction of warfare, showing both couched and over arm Spears on the part of the Normans.
Matthew James Stanham
It is a joyful thing indeed to hold intimate converse with a man after one\'s own heart, chatting without reserve about things of interest or the fleeting topics of the world; but such, alas, are few and far between.
Yoshida Kenko (1283-1350), Tsurezure-Gusa (1340)
Yoshida Kenko (1283-1350), Tsurezure-Gusa (1340)