Like the Parthenon Frieze or Trajan's Column, the Bayeux Tapestry is a familiar and manifestly wonderful work of art which remains baffling in many ways, Although embroidered shortly after 1066 and filled with vivid, detailed depictions of the Norman Conquest, its value as an historical source is, nonetheless, disputed for a number of reasons. Within the Tapestry itself some key episodes remain difficult to decipher because it is not clear which figure is the one identified by name in the inscription above or because the normal sequence of events has been reversed. Also there are marginal figures, some derived from mlythology or Aesopic fables, whose purpose, if any, is disputed. Adding to our difficulties is the present condition of the Tapestry. We know it has been extensively restored but without a critical edition of the work, it is not always possible to distinguish a restored area from an original one, and if it Is restored whether it was accurately done.

Turning from the object itself to its place within its historical context two questions remain sources of perplexity. First, why does the Tapestry occasionally diverge in a striking fashion from contemporary written accounts, and secondly, if the Tapestry was designed and embroidered, as we now believe, not by Normans but by the English for their new masters, how did this unusual circumstance of the conquered telling the story of their own defeat at the command of the victorsaffect the selection of what to include and what to leave out, the ordering of events, and the creation of the iconography? This problem of its unusual origin has rightly been called ‘one of the most puzzling in medieval art history.

In the midst of these large questions I propose to deal with what might appear to be one very limited problem: why did the artist of the Bayeux Tapestry depict Harold as blinded by an arrow at the battle of Hastings when not oneofthe contemporary written accounts mentions this extraordinary detail? However, in our search for answers to this question let us keep in mind the other problems mentioned above, for l believe that an inclusive answer to this question of the iconography of Harold's death might provide us with a key to unlocking the secrets of the Bayeux Tapestry.