My current Chandler's Ford Today post called Producing a Legend: Sir Bevis of Hampton has shown me this is not the case! Sir Bevis was a mythical and medieval blockbuster hero, whose stories were hugely popular in those times. And one of the ways of getting these across to people was via tapestry! Henry V was known to "read" Sir Bevis's adventures via tapestries.
It's hard to imagine a more beautiful way of reading a story! Though of course the downside was tapestries were very much a status symbol so the audience for this kind of story telling necessarily was limited. The oral tradition of story telling, prior to the invention of print, would have been the main way of getting stories across to the "peasants". I strongly suspect I would never been allowed anywhere near a tapestry had I lived in those times!
Am I glad of more accessible ways of enjoying stories these days? You bet!