Tapestry Tales

8/14/2019 Tapestry Tales

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Tapestry Tales

Alex Conradie

I've always been rather fascinated bychaos. How the beating of a butterfly'swings can spark a storm half a worldaway; how seemingly insignificantevents can tip the scales anddramatically change the landscape. In1066, after his success against the Vikingthreat in the North, King Harold of England hastily returned South to faceWilliam of Normandy. Urgency or overconfidence prevented him bolsteringhis forces or reinforcing his non-mounted warriors with archers. Forcedmarch may have imperceptibly

weakened his hardened warriors & critical mass may have been subtly lost in his mostexperienced & disciplined units during the Viking campaign.

In October, William of Normandy probably surprised him near Hastings,though Harold managed to claim thehigh ground. Harold expertly employeda defensive tactic aimed at weakeningthe attacking force with minimal losses,

but to no avail. That day, after severalhours of fighting, twelve thousandwarriors decided the ill fate of 1-2million Saxons; perhaps moresignificantly the fate of Saxon culture.Anje & I walked across this waterloggedfield of battle, considering a landscapelargely unchanged by nine centuries. Somuch blood.

The Norman challenge to Saxon culture wasmuch as the Saxon challenge to the Celticculture five centuries earlier. The Normans

brought their rule & customs. French becamethe language of law, estates, song, verse,chanson & romance. The Normans broughtfeudalism with its fragmented authority andunfortunate caste system. Most of all, theSaxons resented being an oppressed majority.



Understandably, the fractal beauty of feudalism remained unrecognised duringthe High Middle Ages. Nevertheless, after the fall of Rome, the High Middle Ageswas the break of day. Europe's greatfortune lay in the weakness and divisionthat accompanied an uncertain & poorlyunderstood world. Constant competition

between its component parts propelledEurope forward, spurring innovation. HadRome persevered, Europe would havestagnated as a pre-industrial society.

Reminders of Saxon culture are rare, thoughan architectural heritage lies scattered uponthe British landscape. Most significant of allis the Dark Age Saxon poem, Beowulf. In theepic poem, the monster Grendel is the clear antagonist, the walker of the boundary land.He lurks unseen in the shadows of the bogoutside the warmth of the mead hall,launching sudden vicious attacks on the hall'scertainty.

Like the reasons for King Harold's demise,modern-day Grendels are more subtle. Amonoculture lacks diversity, stifling toinnovative thinking. If everyone has thesame thought process, similar solutionswill always be found. Post-war Europe inthe 20th century had a unique opportunityto become a mosaic of diverse, looselyfederated states aligned along sharedeconomic goals. Unlearning the lessons of the past, the 21st century European Unioncontinually seeks greater centralisation in

Brussels. The looming single Constitutionfor Europe must surely be a potential threatto diversity & innovation.

"It is like a nail," the chairman of Stalin's League of the Militant Godless, Yemelian Yaroslavsky,once complained of Christianity, "the harder it is struck, the deeper it goes." Pray that the manyEuropean peoples & cultures will respond in kind.



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Tapestry Tales