Amber



 //I was ////born on ////the 16th of May, 1997, which makes me 13 going on 14 this year. My interests/hobbies include playing the vilion, viola and flute, reading and writing, Shetland ponies and playing tanle tennis. This year my focus in English is to work hard, and to have lots of fun doing so, and to improve my skills in all areas of the subject. //  
 * //Hello and welcome to Amber's page //**
 * //Below is my work so far this year. I hope you enjoy reading it. //**
 * The Prisoners **

 “I can’t believe it… I just can’t believe it… How could they do it? How could they order us to do such a thing? It’s downright dirty…” Thoughts coursed through my mind like a fast flowing river as we dragged ourselves towards the gravel pit. I felt as though my whole body was paralysed, taken over by someone other than myself, and it was their legs carrying me towards the unfortunate captors, not my own. Then I realised that I already knew whose they were. They were the Captains legs; he was the one in control of my body, of all of our bodies. We were completely at his disposal, all of us simply his obedient little pack of dogs.
 * Private Bill Nugent **

Amongst the chaos of my other thoughts, I remembered what Corporal Foster had said to Walt Drury, “You’ll do what the Captain says or you’ll get a court-martial. Then they’ll stand you up and shoot you too. – Maybe you’d like that!” the really sad thing was, he was right. I could hardly admit it to myself… but he was right. I never thought I could be such a coward… killing so many others, just to save my own skin.

I was completely oblivious to my surroundings, immersed in my own thoughts and guilt for what I was about to do… everything around me was surreal, as though I was in a terrible nightmare. As the prisoners appeared in front of us, I looked straight at them, my face free from the emotions I felt inside. Their faces were so young, and they looked so sickly and weak. Corporal Foster was organising the prisoners into a single file, his face distorted and angry words escaping from his mouth.

Suddenly, I heard a strange noise escape Walt’s mouth. I turned to look at him, finally coming back to my senses. He threw his rifle to one side and stumbled away, running as fast as he could through the woods. I called out to him, “Walt! What are you doing?! You’ll be killed! Come back!” I took a step towards where he had ran, wild thoughts once again taking over. “Maybe I should follow him… maybe there actually was some sense in his actions… no...” I began to think straight… “…no, we’d both be killed…” to this day I still wish that I had had the guts to follow him, but instead I took a step back… “Coward…” I thought to myself, “…I’m nothing but a useless coward, just another one of the Captain’s dogs…”

Then the prisoners came up out of the pit. I’ll never forget the looks of fear plastered across their faces, nor the way they stared down at the ground in front of them, as though somehow staring at it hard enough would force them to wake up from this terrible nightmare. Corporal Foster said something then, but I wasn’t listening. I just couldn’t tear my eyes away from the prisoners.

That walk seemed like it went on for days, months, years… maybe even a lifetime. It is moments like these that life really does seem a fragile thing… a thing that anyone can take away from you in the blink of an eye, if they had managed to convince themselves that they had the right reasons to do it.. My ‘right’ reason was to save my own life. Pathetic.

When the entrance to the ravine loomed in front of us, the prisoners stopped. Their horrified expressions and their shaking knees were a terrible sight. Their eyes filled with fear, like the evening sky slowly becoming flooded with darkness… but, they still entered the ravine, even though they feared what was awaiting them there, for they had no choice…

Looking at the prisoners faces made everything all the worst. Looking into their eyes, I found myself, against my will, wondering about their personal stories, creating their backgrounds purely from my imagination. Did they have families back home, people that would miss them? Did they have dreams beyond being part of the military? Most of all I wondered about their pasts… and from only looking at their young faces, you could never have told that they had no future…

From that moment everything seemed to play out in slow motion… Sergeant Pelton gave the signal to begin shooting, and the bullets began to flow from our guns, showering the prisoners with painful blows and forming puddles of red blood. I resisted the urge to close my eyes as the men before me were gunned down by my own gun, and by that of my fellow soldiers. “You have to look at them,” I thought to myself, “you just have to, do you think that not seeing what you’re doing will make you feel any less guilty in the future?!” so I kept my eyes wide open, tears spilling down my cheeks as I watched these men die slowly and painfully before me, and I kept my eyes open right until the end, right until the last of the prisoners were free, free from their chains forever.

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** Reflection **

// My intentions for this piece of writing were to use as much language from the time as possible, and to present Bill Nugent as a character who was a kind, thoughtful person with strong values and opinions, especially when it came to taking right - or wrong - actions. I wanted to show him to be a person who was very traumatised about what he had to do, and always would be in the future. I aimed to write creatively and really enjoyed doing so, I really felt as though I was there, seeing everything around me through the eyes of Bill Nugent. I tried to create a vivid picture through my writing for all readers of what I saw. I hope you saw it too! Thanks for reading. //

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** Below is my report on the Bayeux Tapestry and how King Harold died... **

 he Bayeux Tapestry – How Did Harold Die?

Background to the tapestry

The Bayeux Tapestry was believed to be commissioned or designed by the Normans, but many scholars believe that it was stitched by English hands between 1068 and 1077. This theory is based on the fact that the style of the figures and the use of the coloured wool appear more English than Norman. The fact that Harold is referred to as “Kind Harold” instead of “Harold” or “Earl Harold” also suggests that it was sewn by English hands, as the Normans would not have referred to him as King.

This piece of art was created to show people an event that occurred in 1066 – the invasion of England by Duke William of Normandy. However, the tapestry presents a stretched version of the true story. The tapestry shows the Norman’s side of the story, where they have presented themselves in such a way as to make themselves look as good as possible in their victory. They also stretched the truth to cause the people to think that they had a right to win the war, despite the fact that they were the invading force.

The tapestry is mainly pictures, but Latin captions are also included for those that can read the language. At the time when it was sewn, peasants were illiterate, so it is logical that it would be a tapestry, that way if someone who couldn’t read wanted to know the story of the Norman victory, they could still understand the story by looking at the pictures.

What Kind of Evidence is the Tapestry?

The tapestry could not really be considered primary evidence depicting the events that actually took place. It is only primary evidence of how tapestry was woven at the time and used to tell a story, and the fact that Latin was used as a written language. The tapestry cannot be considered primary evidence of what actually took place in the battle because it is only one person’s account of what happened, and also because the people who made it did not witness the battle first hand, they had only heard about it. Because it is hearsay, the tapestry could only be considered secondary evidence.  <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; language: en-AU;">Above: The Bayeux Tapestry in the special museum in Bayeux, Musée de la Tapisserie de Bayeux <span style="display: block; padding-bottom: 2.88pt; padding-left: 2.88pt; padding-right: 2.88pt; padding-top: 2.88pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; language: en-AU;">Below: A painting of the tapestry being made

<span style="display: block; padding-bottom: 2.88pt; padding-left: 2.88pt; padding-right: 2.88pt; padding-top: 2.88pt;"> First Possible Cause of Harold’s Death

There are many different theories as to how Harold Godwinson met his end, but the two most common theories are those portrayed in the Bayeux tapestry. The first possible cause of his death is an arrow through the eye. This is believed due to the illustration on one portion of the tapestry, where a figure looks as though his hand is on an arrow that has been shot into his eye. However, recently it has been proposed that the Normans would have preferred to depict Harold as being totally dead, whereas the figure with the arrow in his eye is still standing and there is a chance he may not have been killed. The reason they would have wanted to show Harold dead beyond question was to make sure that no argument arose that Harold may not have been killed, and therefore still was the rightful king of England, rather than the current ruler, Duke William of Normandy.

Second Possible Cause of Harold’s Death

The second possible cause of Harold’s death was that he was killed by a mounted horseman, and in the tapestry this figure is shown to be completely run through by the knight’s sword, but there is some argument saying that this sword is in fact the sheath of the man that appears to have been run through by the horseman. Another theory is that both of the above possibilities of death are correct, and that the tapestry shows a sequence of events, the first of these being Harold being shot by an arrow through the eye, which did not kill him, and the second showing Harold being killed and trampled by a knight and his horse.

Conclusion

// The most plausible cause of Harold’s death in the tapestry would be that he was killed by an arrow through the eye. However, it is also possible that the people who created the tapestry were not completely truthful, and that Harold did not in fact die like this. Therefore, the most plausible cause of Harold’s death in the tapestry is dying by an arrow through the eye. // // Evidence that approves this theory is the fact that above the figure with the arrow through his eye is Harold’s name, and figures that were clearly intended to be Harold earlier in the tapestry also had his name above them. // // Another piece of evidence that the figure with the arrow through his eye is Harold is that this figure is in the foreground, whereas other figures are //

further in the background, they are smaller and your eye is not drawn to them as much as it is drawn to the man in the foreground.
 * Below: ** A close up of The figure with the arrow through his eye
 * Above: ** Figure with an arrow through his eye

<span style="display: block; font-family: Gabriola; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; text-align: center;">* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** Reflection **

// In this report I was hoping to express the correct information in a detailed and interesting way. The most challenging part to put into words was my opinion about how Harold died. I tried to make it clear that I believe that the creators of the tapestry may not have told the truth of Harold’s death. It would make sense for them to have show him first as a perjurer, whether it was true or not, and then to show him being killed by an arrow through the eye. Therefore, I tried to show that I believe that Harold was shown as the figure with the arrow through his eye in the tapestry, but perhaps that is not how he dies in real life. I hope that you enjoyed my report. // // ﻿ //

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References

1. Clare, J.D. (1997) <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'; font-size: 11pt; language: en-AU; text-decoration: underline; textunderline: single;">The Middle Ages, Nelson.

2. Unknown, “Bayeux Tapestry:story of William the Conqueror and the battle of Hastings:section 49_51”, 13 th Feb 2011, <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'; font-size: 11pt; language: en-AU; text-decoration: underline; textunderline: single;">[]

3. Unknown, “Art History >> Blog Archive >> Bayeux Tapestry”, 13 th Feb 2011, <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'; font-size: 11pt; language: en-AU; text-decoration: underline; textunderline: single;">[]

<span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: bold; language: en-AU; line-height: 114%;">4. Glen Ray Crack, “Bayeux Tapestry Highlights History and Construction”, 13 th Feb 2011, <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'; font-size: 11pt; language: en-AU; line-height: 114%; text-decoration: underline; textunderline: single;">[]

<span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: bold; language: en-AU; line-height: 114%;">5. Wikipedia, “Bayeux Tapestry—Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia”, 16th Feb 2011, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayeux_Tapestry

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