Textual Analysis Of The Harold Feasts

The feast, defined as a communal celebration centered around food and drink, has been used commonly as the subject of great works of art since at least the Ancient Romans. Interestingly, it also can be used to establish the “group identity” of the illustrated. In the feasts of scenes four (figure 1) and forty-three (figure 2), the designers of the Bayeux Tapestry did just that. Using different visual elements, they were able to depict the group identities of both the Anglo-Saxons and Normans. However, these group identities paint two very different pictures. The Anglo-Saxons in their feast are represented as sinful, of lower class, and as unmasculine and weak. In stark contrast, the Normans in the feast scene 43 are portrayed as righteous,

Overall, these elements all aid in emphasizing the vast ‘superiority’ of the Normans. Firstly, when examining their respective feasts the Anglo-Saxons are depicted as immoral while the Normans are depicted as righteous. In the feast Harold and his men are pictured drinking, two of which with drinking horns. These drinking horns were “often shown in the hands of morally weak or evil characters and had become symbols of vanity and sin”. In addition, their morality was also critiqued with their partying nature. On the rightmost edge of the feast, two of Harold’s men are pointing to the right at awaiting ships. Their action implies that the party has “gone on too long” and therefore the Anglo-Saxons are indulgent hard partiers. This notion is backed up by the Anglo-Norman poet Wace who described the Anglo-Saxons as drinkers and partiers. When looking towards the upper frieze of scene four, right above the feast sits a “bird with the peacock’s crest devouring a fish in the upper border”.

All of the Anglo-Saxons in the feast are featured with short tunics, long hair, and some are sporting mustaches. All of these different fashion and grooming choices are symbolic of a lack of masculinity. Short tunics were viewed as a boyish choice of clothing that a real man would not touch. Mustaches were not viewed as boyish, but instead as a grooming choice that only “adult males who lack masculinity” make. However, the most telling of all is their long hair. During the time period, long hair was viewed as something that “disgrace[s] a man” and that it “[is] Woman’s glory”. Thus, the Anglo-Saxons long hair made them feminine. In other research into masculinity in the Bayeux Tapestry, I discovered that unmanliness and weakness went hand in hand in the minds of the people in the time period. Therefore all of these characteristics that made them look unmasculine, also made them look