Only just learnt the Bayeux Tapestry is actually an embroidery

[JamieOliverPetrolStation]

I saw a comment on social media where someone pointed out that the Bayeux Tapestry is actually an embroidery. So it's the Bayeux Embroidery.

Apparently we’ve all just agreed to call it the wrong thing for nearly a thousand years and carry on. Life is a lie. Next someone will tell me Hadrian’s Wall is a fence and Stonehenge is technically a prehistoric gazebo.

That is such a good idea. Maybe we should refuse to give it back, too. Make King Charles stand in front of it with his arms crossed.

Yes, it should be renamed "The Kent Embroidery".
Oh and the French owe us reparations. An annual gift of wine and brie for every UK citizen should do it.

Camilla with her Dior handbag as a defensive shield.

I'm in a car at the moment so can't faff about with links but John Redwood, ex MP and he of the right wing Brexity bonkersness is on X non-ironically and non-humourously referring to it as the Bayeux Embroidery and is still obviously affronted by British/French history so by the end of the day he could, indeed, have decided to call it the Kent Embroidery!

And I was joking. He ain't joking.

Oh my god. That's genuinely odd, however, it is John Redwood.

Long term it could be a job for Meghan and Harry - they could be the royal keepers of the Kent Embroidery.

Po-tayto, Po-tahto!

Tap-estrah, embroid-erah?

I listened to the interview with the French Minister of Culture, Catherine Pegard, on the Today programme this morning.
Despite Nick Robinson it was really interesting to hear, not least because I love listening to the French Language. At one point she referred to the Tapestry as a Cartoon. Which I thought strange at first. But it actually makes sense. I shall now think of it as the Bayeux Cartoon.

Good plan. They could maybe have their story stitched on at the end, as a sort of addendum.

Lots of things are known different from their original name or have a translated version of their name.
For example We call paper , paper even though it is made of wood pulp but was originally from papyrus.
Language and words and meanings evolve and change over time.

Ive just explored this a bit more as I can omly remember bits from school and this is what I found about its name

In French, tapisserie is a broad term that can mean almost any decorative textile wall-hanging, regardless of whether it is woven or stitched. When translated into English, it simply became "tapestry"
I remembered it was wall art but couldn't remember the French word that was used.

Yes, like the Da Vinci Cartoons, which were less amusing than I anticipated.

This. As much as the difference between tapestry and embroidery is valid and interesting, the word tapisserie was used to describe a range of fabric wall coverings. It is related to the word tapis for carpet rather than the actual process like our word embroidery, or the french word broderie.

Thats what i thought as well 😅

Interestingly, the souvenir cushions in the British Museum gift shop featuring scenes from the Bayeux tapestry/ embroidery ARE actually made of tapestry, unlike the real thing!

That's excellent! Do they have any cartoons?

"The French translation for needlepoint is la tapisserie au point or le point d'aiguille". Maybe this is why?

Can you buy an embroidery kit to do a piece? I'll google. I expect we could but I would have to live until I'm 400 in order to manage a 3 cm stretch.

There is a woman doing a faithful copy, so far taken her 10 years and is not quite finished yet.

Apparently a lot of the earlier copies were self censored but she has been doing the whole thing, rude bits and all.

I am hoping hers will be going on display. I have seen the original and would love to see it in full colour.

I watched a programme where the presenter said that men didn't know the differences in needlepoint and therefore called it a tapestry because tapestries were generally large and hung on walls, like this one is. And it stuck, because men said it was and women weren't consulted.

No idea if it's true but based on how life was for the different sexes it probably has some truth to it.

Edit for weird autocorrect

Maybe, this is the kind of expiation I was after. 😀

Men telling women they are wrong who woulda thought 😀

Language and word meanings change over a thousand years - who knew?

What we now call embroidery was originally called “tapisserie aux points d'aiguille”, tapisserie being the French for tapestry. The French word “broderie” from which we get embroidery, came along later.

Does the gore get depicted better as a tapestry or an embroidery?

Story?? You mean their lived experience.