A Needle in the Right Hand of God: The Norman Conquest of 1066 and the Making and Meaning of the Bayeux Tapestry

The Battle of Hastings in 1066 was "one of the determining days in the making of the West," says Bloch, and there is no more compelling witness to that watershed than the Bayeux Tapestry. In a fast-paced tale involving medieval armies and embroiderers, Bloch, director of Yale's division of humanities, traces not only the history of the tapestry but also the social and political history recorded in its 230 feet. Bloch considers the mystery of who embroidered the tapestry (many attribute the work to Queen Mathilda, William's wife, and her embroiderers) and whether it was meant to be hung in a cathedral or a castle, and examines the textile as a work of art with elements of not only animal fables but the "bawdy tales" popular in the medieval marketplace. The tapestry, Bloch relates, has survived use by the military during the French Revolution to wrap equipment wagons, and Hitler's attempt to decode the possible secrets it might possess about the Nordic people. The tapestry, now in a museum in Bayeux, brings history to life, and Bloch's splendid account does the same for the tapestry itself.