jetlag

I got home last night from Europe to find my internet mysteriously nonfunctional. When that changes I can actually communicate in greater length about my trip. A few noteworthy He said/she saids in medieval art and architecture in Normandy:

William the Conqueror founded two abbeys in the city of Caen to appease the church after his marriage (he was called the Bastard before he went for the more flattering William the Conqueror), one for men and one for women. He is burried in the Abbaye aux Hommes, she in the Abbaye aux Dames. The architecture is significantly different between the two. Honestly though, I think anything past that is just invention.

The Bayeux Tapestry, which tells the story of the Battle of Hastings, has only 3 women depicted in its 70+ meters. One of them is William's daughter who gets slapped by a monk which supposedly indicates that she has been proposed to or rather, that she has been given in marriage. The top and bottom borders offer running commentary for the story and under this picture, there is a man with a big penis. Noteworthy, I think, as the only other naked figures on the entire tapestry are first, a man trying to rape a woman (in the border a bit earlier) and later the dead soldiers after the battle after their armor has been stolen. Throw in that the entire thing was made by English monks after their country had been taken over. The tapestry really is loads of fun.

I am supposed to be doing work right now (that obviously isn't happening) but I should probably go and make a better show of pretending. Pictures will be posted on facebook, I think, when my parents, who are still in Germany, bring them home on Sunday.