The Bayeux Tapestry tells the story of the conquest of England by the Duke of Normandy in the year 1066, displayed at the Bayeux Museum in France.
The tapestry, about 68 metres long and 70cm wide, contains 58 embroidered scenes, including 626 characters and 202 horses.
But what experts can’t agree on is how many penises the tapestry contains.
He also found William the Conqueror’s horse had “the largest equine penis by far”, even bigger than the horse belonging to Harold Godwinson, the Anglo-Saxon, the leader of the army he was fighting.
“And that’s not a coincidence,” Garnett added.
The disagreement between the historians came to a head on the History Extra Podcast. “I am in no doubt that the appendage is a depiction of male genitalia – the missed penis, shall we say. The detail is surprisingly anatomically fulsome,” Monk said
Garnett, however, believes the appendage is the sheath of a sword or dagger.
Despite the penis jokes and innuendos, the pair could agree that their work was important and not silly. “The whole point of studying history is to understand how people thought in the past,” Garnett said.
“Medieval people were not crude, unsophisticated, dim-witted individuals. Quite the opposite.”
Podcast host and Bayeux Tapestry expert Dr David Musgrove said the new theory was fascinating.
“It’s a reminder that this embroidery is a multi-layered artefact that rewards careful study and remains a wondrous enigma almost a millennium after it was stitched.”
Main Image: Professor George Garnett says the object protruding from the man’s tunic is a sheath of a sword or dagger, but Dr David Musgrove says it’s a penis. Courtesy Bayeux Museum
Anna Melnykova, "Palace of Labor (palats praci), architector I. Pretro, 1916", shot with analog Canon camera, 35 mm Fuji film in March 2022.
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