Re: More on the Bayeux Tapestry...

In message <1138639231.984994.273130@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, celia <c_a_blay@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes
isn't it more likely to be a later invention 

It would make sense of the gestures of the
courtiers behind Harold. It has been said that
the 'shush' means the relics were hidden but
they are obviously relics; it could mean that the
nature of the relic was not revealed.
My argument is that relics were carefully
chosen for different purposes, this was not necessarily
anything to do with the degree of their veneration.
The monks that sent St. Odulph's head to Edith's
Great Osteological Exhibition chose carefully
because of his reputation for looking after his interests.
Sparhavoc chose Berta and Letard to pray to when
he lost Edith's precious ring because they were his
local saints, William completely 'bought' Hereward's
choice of Saint and protector to the extent that
even in victory he wouldn't approach the reliquary
but threw a handful of coins onto the altar from
a distance to placate her.
Time and again when I was trying to trace the
goldsmiths' family, (a job made much more difficult
by the power of the women) when I lost my way
I was able to pick up the thread again and work
backwards because I knew the saints that were
important to them. Often the family's saints were ancestors
Its not a thing that I could prove but it feels like
a barely christianised version of ancestor worship.
The equivalent to tracing the family back to Woden.
  Another of my theories (this time more mainstream)
is that the donator of treasures and relics to
religious houses kept a say in what happened to them
and this was inherited.
 If this is correct and St. Ouen's relics were returned
to Rouen, it was more likely to be down to Edward
than the Archbishop of Canterbury.
1060 is the likely year as that is when building work
was completed.
  I seem to remember that one of the royal goldsmiths
worked in Rouen but I can't remember who or when.
  Harold didn't bring them with him as the gifts he
brought are known.
 The other reliquary has handles indicating that
it was movable.

  Celia


I am not quite sure what you mean by the shush gestures, I always took it that everyone is pointing in Harold's general direction or at the inscription - emphasising the particular importance of the event.

There doesn't seem to be anything to identify the reliquaries which any certainty, although one as you say appears to be movable.

Bernstien suggests that the moveable reliquary is intended as an allusion to the Ark of the Covenant and ties this in with his theory that the BT contains other biblical allusions, however I don't think too many people have been persuaded.
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Simon Pugh
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