Welcome to the History Extra podcast, fascinating historical conversations from the makers of BBC History Magazine.

Historians have counted a lot of things in the Bayer tapestry, animals, ships, hands, plants. But nobody had counted the amount of penises

within it until Oxford historian Professor George Garnett took on the challenge. A while

back he wrote an article on this subject for BBC History magazine. And for this episode, Dave

Musgrove invited George to reveal just how many penises he did find in the tapestry. And for this episode, Dave Musgrove invited George to reveal just how many penises

he did find in the tapestry and explain why this is, in fact, serious research that helps

us to better understand this vital account of the Norman conquest of 1066. And if you enjoy

this episode, you can find a bonus episode delving into the real nitty-gritty

of Anglo-Saxon sex in your podcast feeds exclusively for History Extra Plus subscribers, which is now

available across most podcast platforms. If you aren't already, you can become a History Extra

Plus subscriber by clicking the link in the episode description.

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as well as early access and exclusives.

Today, I'm very pleased to be joined by Professor George Garnett, Professor of History

here at Oxford University. George, welcome to the

podcast. How are you? I'm fine, thank you. Good, good to have you. Now look, as I said,

you're a Professor of History at Oxford University. Can I ask you then, why did you count the penises

in the biotapestry? Well, lots of scholars had counted virtually everything else in the

biotapestry, animals, horses, dogs,

donkey, ships, houses, churches. And one of the striking things about the tapestry is the number

of penises which appear in the bottom border, which people had previously thought to be

simply decorative. And I thought, that's a curious form of decoration, really, isn't it? Why are there

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