Embroidering the truth . . .
QUESTION Did English seamstresses create The Bayeux tapestry? The people who worked on the famous embroidery — it is not actually a tapestry, — have been the subject of much academic study, but there is, in fact, no documented account of who they were or where it was made. There are, however, many clues within the images and text.
We know Bishop Odo of Bayeux probably commissioned the work in the 1070s and that it was completed by about 1077. A Norman, he was also created earl of Kent in 1067 and was granted large amounts of land across all of england, so he had strong connections and influence on both sides of the Channel.
english needlewomen had a reputation for fine embroidery skills and techniques, which would later be called Opus
Anglicanum (english work), although almost no pieces from the 11th century survive. It seems likely englishwomen worked, under Norman direction, to create the embroidery and they might have been based at Canterbury.
The text is in Latin, but the names of people and places give an indication that the needleworkers spoke Old english and did not know Latin or Norman French.
english names such as harold and Stigand are not ‘Latinised’ by having the masculine nominative ending us added.
The name of hastings appears in its Old english form ( Hestenga) rather than the Latin version ( Hastingae); and the Normans are sometimes referred to as
Franci (French), which is something the Normans themselves would never have done, as they saw themselves as distinctly and emphatically Norman, but this distinction was lost on the english people of the time. The Norman name William would have been unfamiliar to english embroiderers, so it appears throughout the work in a variety of spellings (Willelmus, Wilgelmus, Willemus), while the much more familiar english names Leofwine and Girð are given their correct spellings, including the letter ð (pronounced eth) which does not feature in Norman French or Latin. The techniques used in the embroidery and the distinctive english flavour in the text points strongly to the work being completed by englishwomen.
David Rayner, Canterbury, Kent. QUESTION Does the word ‘butterfly’ have anything to do with butter? BuTTerFLy is from Middle english
buterflie or boterflye, which in turn came from Old english butorfleoge, and might have been formed by putting together
butor (beater) and fleoge (fly). This makes sense considering that a butterfly must beat its wings to fly.
however, a common theory behind the name is that it is indeed related to butter because of how butterflies hovered around uncovered pails of milk and butter. It led people to believe they ate and stole such foods, or even that witches taking on the shape of butterflies did so. Similar names for butterflies are, in German, Butterfliege ( although more usually Schmetterling) and Dutch botervlieg, both of which have the same literal components, ‘butter’ plus ‘fly.’ An alternative German name for butterfly is Molkendieb, meaning milk thief. Emilie Lamplough, Trowbridge, Wiltshire. QUESTION Do some countries paint their wildlife with reflective paint to prevent traffic accidents? FurTher to the earlier answer, about 60 wild horses are killed each year on roads around Dartmoor, and rangers have tried a number of schemes to stop this. reflective collars were attached to animals, but this failed because they tended to get pulled off when the animals wandered through the gorse.
Following the Finnish approach, in 2015 the Dartmoor Livestock Protection Society began painting a fluorescent stripe across the flanks of the animals. unfortunately, there were technical issues — the paint used faded after only a few nights, and it was decided the effectiveness of the scheme would be undermined by the problem of ponies shedding their winter coats.
E. Janson, Bodmin, Cornwall. WheN living some years ago in the Middle east, there was a fast road between Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
There were many accidents at night when camels wandered on to the highway and were hit by cars, seriously damaging animals and vehicles.
An American company developed a high-visibility waistcoat for the camels. unfortunately, camels will eat anything and thought them very tasty.
Chis Parsons, Millbrook, Cornwall.
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