One theory is that the scene depicts Harold’s sister, whom he has pledged in marriage to William. But this Ælfgyva was already dead by 1066. Other members of his family have also been proposed, including an imagined daughter, a wife and even his mother. Some claim the woman is the abbess responsible for the making of the tapestry, and here she is being given instructions on its creation by a monk. But this fails to take into consideration the gesture of touching which would have been inappropriate between a nun and a monk.59 A relatively novel suggestion is that the woman is Ælfgyva of
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