О.М.Елина, Н.С.Маринчук - Методическая разработка к фильму The History of Britain - Part 2 (О.М. Елина, Н.С. Маринчук - Методическая разработка к фильму The History of Britain), страница 5

En route, he stopped here inthe Viking earldom of the Orkneys to pick up yet more men and ships to add to his alreadyformidable fleet. Expectations must have been high.The Norsemen could almost smell triumph in the summer winds. There would have beenfeasting, singing and the reading of poems, some of them doubtless written by Hardrada himself.And it may be here that Tostig joined the Viking fleet. If he did and looked out and saw the 300ships, his little heart must have skipped a beat to think of the catastrophe awaiting his brother.Together, Tostig and Hardrada would be unstoppable, invincible. Or would they?Having landed on the Northumbrian coast, the Viking army headed for York, where it fought offthe northern earls to take control of the city.Complacent with victory, Hardrada and Tostig travelled with just one third of the army, eightmiles east of York, to Stamford Bridge, where they'd arranged to collect 500 hostages.What they saw on the banks of the River Derwent was not a forlorn group of hostages but amassive army, their weapons glittering like sheets of ice, as the Viking bard put it.

Tostig knew itmeant trouble. It was his big brother.Getting his army in position to surprise the Norsemen was an epic feat by any standards. Haroldhad travelled from London, picking up his army on the way, covering 187 miles in four days - 37to 45 miles a day. Imagine then, thousands of men going as fast as their horses, or, in manycases, as fast as their legs could carry them. Up the Great North Road to Peterborough, Lincoln,Tadcaster. The ultimate high-impact hike with the heaviest backpacks imaginable.

At the end ofit, Harold fought one of the bloodiest battles in English history.Segment 3.(SHOUTS AND CRIES)00:31:36,430 -->It was the English who broke the Viking line, and the remaining Norse warriors cowered aroundtheir chiefs. We must imagine the great Hardrada swinging his axe beneath the Landvaster flag,before finally sinking down with an arrow in the throat; Tostig picking up the Raven flag and, inhis turn, being cut down.The carnage was so complete that it took just 24 of the 300 ships that had sailed to England toreturn the pitiful remnant of the Norse army back to Norway. In a final act of respect, Haroldfound his dead brother and took what was left of him to be buried at York Minster.9He had no time to grieve or exalt over the death of Tostig, for the day after the Battle ofStamford Bridge, the Norman fleet, at last, felt the wind change direction.So, with great haste, the Duke went to sea, with his fleet sailing swiftly to the coast of England.Their first sight of land would have been the cliffs at Beachy Head, and they landed in the nearbysheltering harbours at Pevensey.An old Roman fort guarded the beach.

Within its empty shell, William's men erected aprefabricated timber castle, later to be rebuilt in stone, as if declaring that they were now heirs tothe Romans.Expeditions for food and forage from the base camp took the usual form, burning everythingthat couldn't be seized, striking terror into the hearts of the locals.Segment 4.00:33:49,990 -->One of the most unforgettable details in the entire Bayeux Tapestry is this seemingly incidentaldetail of a mother and child turned refugee, fleeing from their burning house, maybe evenHastings, resigned to their fate, not looking back. This is the first of the images that will echothrough European art; through Rubens, Goya and Picasso's Guernica, of the victims of war, ofcivilians, of innocence.But William soon discovered there was no easy route from Pevensey to London.

The countrybehind the town was waterlogged, crossed by little river valleys that fed into the sea. But therewas one old Anglo-Saxon trail that could take him to the Roman road north through Kent, and itwas for mastery of this ancient, muddy, rutted track, that the most gruelling battle in early Britishhistory would be fought.Having beaten back the threat of the Vikings and his own brother, it must have seemedinconceivable to Harold that he'd have to do it all over again within a week or two. It would notbe easy.

Who could he call on?The bruised and battered remains of his army.It would be a long shot, but after Stamford Bridge perhaps Harold felt he could actually trust hisgambler's luck. Besides, William's public name-calling - Harold the Perjured, Harold the OathBreaker, Harold the Perfidious - had made it personal now, a mortal duel. Let the hand of Goddecide the righteous party, who would prevail.Harold left London at full speed.

He gathered what he could of a new army by an old grey appletree, an ancient blasted tree that stood on a hill at the crossing of the track leading out ofHastings. There Harold planted his banner, "The Dragon of Wessex". The Normans called thisplace "Senlach", meaning "Lake of Blood".10Segment 5.(CHANTING)00:36:15,510 -->Imagine yourself on the morning of Saturday 14th October, 1066. You're a Saxon warrior, ahuscarl as it happens, and you've survived Stamford Bridge. You know your position herecouldn't be better. You stand on the brow of the hill and look down hundreds of yards away atthe opposition. You only have to prevent the Normans from breaking through to the Londonroad.

They have the horses but they have to ride them uphill. You look along the hillside to see adensely-packed crowd of Englishmen.At the front are the huscarls, a wall of solid shields, and with them the axemen. Behind them thepart-timers, the fighting farmers, who must have time to find their courage. At the foot of the hillyou can hear the whinnying of Norman horses... ...and what sounds like the chanting of psalms.You're a Norman foot-soldier and you hope to God the gentlemen on horses know what they'redoing. All around you can hear the scraping of metal, the sharpening of blades, the mounting ofhorses.

You look up to the brow of the hill and you see a glittering line of men and you crossyourself. You finger the rings on your coat of mail, your hawberg, and wonder how solid theyare. You wonder what use they'll be against an axe. You've never seen axes in battle before.Then you catch sight of the Papal banner and take heart. Surely God is on your side.The real beginning must be imagined as the cavalry raced up the hill, one by one getting intorange, hearing the rhythmic chant of "Oot, Oot!" - Out, Out! - from the Saxons, and then hurlingtheir javelins at the front line.Then came the slow advance of the archers, unloosing their first arrows under a hail of enemyspears.And finally the foot-soldiers breaking into a run behind them.Then there was just the murderous smashing and crashing of horses, the slicing and thrusting ofweapons, the screams, cries of the wounded and dying.If the axeman stood firm against the oncoming horse he'd still only get one good swing.

If hemissed, he was left open to the slash of the sword from the rider above.It was the initial success of the English that threatened their downfall. On the left flank ofWilliam's army, horses stumbled and retreated. The right flank of Harold's army, many of theminexperienced fyrdmen, decided to chase them down the hill.But Harold, always conservative in his tactics, refused to allow others to follow. He seems tohave lost momentary control of his troops, who couldn't resist following the horsemen, elated bythe thought that the Duke of Normandy was lost. But William threw back his helmet to prove hewas very much alive. He rallied the ranks of the Norman centre round the rear of the pursuingSaxons and set about slicing them to pieces.11The battle wasn't over yet.

It was going to take at least six hours to decide.The Bayeux Tapestry is shockingly explicit in exposing the extent of the carnage and mutilation.But it was the English army that was eventually, and very, very slowly, ground down. Williambegan exploiting weak points, settling into an alternating rhythm of archers and cavalry. Thearrows now shot high into the air and fell, not onto the front line but the heads of the unprotectedmen behind them.How did Harold himself die? Lately there has been an attempt to read the death scene in theTapestry as though he was the figure cut down by the horseman, not the warrior pulling thearrow out of his eye, the story you and I grew up with.

It seems to me perfectly clear that thewords "Harold Rex" occur directly and significantly above the arrow-struck figure.Then certainly the knights would have been on him, cutting him down, leaving himdisembowelled. The Thanes bravely mounted a last stand, defending the body of their king, butfor many it was a lost cause. It was time to save one's neck, to get out of the way.There are such sad stories of what follows, and perhaps some of them are true. One of them hasHarold's lover, Edith Swan Neck, walking through the heaps of gory corpses to identify the deadking by marks on his body, known only to her.What we do know is that around half the nobility of England perished on that battlefield.12EPISODE 3.Segment 1.00:42:27,950 -->William had sworn that should God give him the victory he would build a great abbey ofthanksgiving at the exact spot where Harold had planted his flag, and here it is - a statement, ifever there was one, of pious jubilation.But William had to make sure he'd won not just a single battle but the war for England.

This wasdone in the time-honoured way, cutting a swathe of fire, rape and plunder through thecountryside of south-east England. One by one the Anglo-Saxon cities folded.William was crowned at Westminster on Christmas Day 1066. But the event was more like ashambles than a triumph. At the shout of acclamation, the Norman soldiers stationed outsidethought a riot had started, to which their response was to burn down every house in sight.