A Writer's Love

I was at the Medieval Faire this weekend and I came across a nice lady who makes Medieval Tapestries. She uses embrodery and she was telling me about the history of tapestries. It was more interesting than I had first thought. In fact, I thought it would be down right boring. But it wasn’t. The one she was embrodering was from the Battle of Hastings, 1066 England, see above picture.  She mentioned that some tapestries told a story of some historical fact, such as the Hastings Battle and some could be a political cartoon in a way. Her friend mentioned that the ‘history’ came from the victor’s point of view, so the history could be different. (Another idea, you could make your history different than what really happened in your fantasy world, thus showing it in the tapestries.  One tapestry shows King Fred winning a fierce battle with King George, but George died of sickness, not battle.  You’ve changed history.  Is it fair?  Will it tear the kingdom apart?  Maybe rebels on King George’s side?  Are your wheels spinning?)  Anyway I was thinking what a great way to tell the history of your fantasy kingdom. The character sees a tapestry and she learns the history of the land along with the reader. She also said that folks don’t know where the tapestries come from, some from nunneries, others from men who designed them.  Unfortunately, the video is too big to post here. If you’re really interested in it, then leave your email here and I’ll send it to you.   But it got my wheels a spinn’.
Here’s a link that explains more about the Hastings Battle of 1066: http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/bayeux.htm

Let me also add, don’t be afraid to study medieval culture. They were pretty smart back in the middle ages and you can come up with some great ideas to incorporate into your fantasy story.

picture from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bayeux_Tapestry_WillelmDux.jpg