Daily History Picture: Man Hits Woman (Medieval Style) November 18, 2015
Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical Pictures , trackback
Bayeux tapestry is often surprisingly ‘raw’: here a woman is hit by a priest?
Typhon to the rescue, 22 nov 2015, After seeing the picture I would have made an uneducated guess, that maybe the woman is a heathen priestess and thus gets slapped by a priest. The structure she is standing in symbolizing some sort of temple. However, after reading the caption above her I found out that there have already been written books about what is going on in this scene. In short, nobody knows, but Aelfgya (which happens to mean “Elf gift”(Changeling??)) seems to be a noble woman and among the most popular theories is a scandal involving her having an affair with the priest, being raped, and all other sorts of sexual interaction. It is also discussed if he is indeed slapping or caressing her… Here are 2 links discussing the subject in depth: (1) and (2).
