The Bayeux Tapestry is back in the UK, and it has London queuing like nobody’s business. After years of diplomacy, the nearly century-old embroidered cloth documenting the 1066 Norman Conquest of England has landed at the British Museum. It’s a big deal, and the museum is having to manage the crowds.
If you’ve seen it, or if you’re still hoping to catch a glimpse of the 747-sized strip of fabric, here are six books that let you keep the medieval fever going.
The Bayeux Tapestry, In Brief
The Tapestry is not technically a tapestry — it’s embroidered cloth, not woven on a loom. It’s nearly two feet wide and about as long as a 747, and it tells the story of William the Conqueror’s invasion of England, culminating in the Battle of Hastings where William faced Harold II, the last Anglo-Saxon king.
William’s half-brother commissioned the piece to commemorate the victory. The tapestry has lived in a small museum in Bayeux, France, for centuries.
A Little Primer On The Period
The Middle Ages gets a bad rap. Matthew Gabriele and David M. Perry try to fix that in The Bright Ages, a wide-ranging history that reevaluates the Vikings, the Black Death, Charlemagne, and more. It’s a readable, engaged look at a period often dismissed as dark.
Aztec History, From A New Angle
Camilla Townsend’s Fifth Sun is a 2021 history of Aztec Mexico, drawing on new scholarship and primary sources. It covers 1325, the founding of Tenochtitlan, and offers a more up-to-date telling of Aztec history than the usual European focus. Townsend is a great writer, and she adds fictional flourishes to make the history pop.
The Peasants’ War, From The Ground Up
Lyndal Roper’s Summer of Fire and Blood looks at the German Peasants’ War of 1524-1525. It was a short-lived, doomed rebellion by lower-class people against the church and the aristocracy. The revolt was brutally suppressed.
The proto-socialism that emerged among the rebels is a highlight. Roper quotes the uprising as expressing “early ideas of justice, communal decision-making, and resistance to arbitrary power,” inspired by radical strains in the Protestant Reformation.
A Surreal Novel About Conquest
Álvaro Enrigue’s You Dreamed of Empires is a historical novel set at the edge of a sword. It’s surreal and gripping, and Enrigue explores the cultural exchange that happens during imperial conquest. Issues of cross-border sovereignty, memory, and justice are more urgent than ever.
Two Translations Of Beowulf
If you want primary sources, two Beowulfs are worth your time. Seamus Heaney’s translation is a classic, bringing lyricism and attention to everyday life to the Old English poem. His “Hwæt” is “So.”
Maria Dahvana Headley’s translation generated buzz and backlash for rendering “Hwæt” as “Bro.” The paper defends Headley’s approach as tapping into something interesting about the poem’s ancient society. People have been invested in monster and superhero stories long before Marvel.
A Fictional Account Of Malinalli
Veronica Chapa’s Malinalli is a novel about the woman who served as translator for Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés during the conquest of the Aztec Empire. Malinalli’s reputation in Mexico is negative — the term “malinchista” refers to someone who likes a foreign culture or lifestyle over their own. Chapa’s book is a sympathetic portrait of someone forced to survive between worlds.
A Classic For Memory And Resilience
Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant is a moving portrait of memory and resilience in a fanatical version of England after King Arthur. It’s a classic for a reason, and the paper admits it’s one of those books it keeps telling itself to reread.
The Violence Of Battle
Christopher Buehlman’s Between Two Fires dives into the brutality of medieval combat. The tapestry doesn’t shy away from violence, and neither does this novel.
| Book | Focus | Format |
|---|---|---|
| The Bright Ages | Vikings, Black Death, Charlemagne | History |
| Fifth Sun | Aztec history, 1325 | History with fiction |
| Summer of Fire and Blood | German Peasants’ War | History |
| You Dreamed of Empires | Imperial conquest | Novel |
| Beowulf (Heaney) | Old English epic | Translation |
| Beowulf (Headley) | Same poem, colloquial approach | Translation |
| Malinalli | Malinalli’s role in the conquest | Novel |
| The Buried Giant | Post-Arthur England | Novel |
These books are the reading equivalent of the tapestry — they let you live in the same world for a while.
Source material: “What to read after you see the Bayeux Tapestry.,” Literary Hub.
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