Caption: A detail of the Bayeux Tapestry, now exhibited at the Bayeux Museum, Bayeux, Normandy, France.
The detail shows Halley's comet. The Latin text reads ISTI MIRANT STELLA: These ones are looking in wonder at the star (see Wikipedia: Omen: Good or bad). Of course, comets are NOT stars in modern astro jargon.
The Bayeux Tapestry is sort of a Medieval graphic novel.
It's all about the Norman conquest of England---1066 and All That.
In fact, comets, the long-haired stars, have always been considered portentous, ominous.
They are strange looking---hairy.
They seemed irregular unlike other astronomical phenonema. It was NOT until Edmond Halley (1656--1742) in 1705 recognized the periodicity his eponymous comet (Halley's comet) that comets were tamed to regularity in some cases.
Comets were thought to herald calamities or disasters (i.e., a bad star events):
-
When beggars die, there are no comets seen;
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.
-
---Calpurnia (c.76--after c.42 BCE)
to Julius Caesar (100--44 BCE)
in Act 2, Scene 2
(scroll down about 25 %)
of Julius Caesar (c.1599),
William Shakespeare (1564--1616).
- And then in 1066, the
Norman conquest
was it seemed foreshadowd
by the infernal
Halley's comet
(see 1066 and All That (1930)).
- See Comet videos below (local link / general link: videos_comets.html).
Credit/Permission: Medieval artists,
circa 1070
(uploaded to Wikipedia by
User:Urban,
2005) /
Public domain.
Image link: Wikipedia:
File:Tapestry of bayeux10.jpg.
Local file: local link: bayeux_tapestry.html.
File: Art file:
bayeux_tapestry.html.
