Hello everyone
You’ve probably heard the story of King Canute. But which story did you hear?
Canute the Great
King Canute—also known as Canute the Great—was King of England from 1016 until his death in 1035. He also became King of Denmark in 1018 and King of Norway in 1028. The three kingdoms under Canute’s rule are often referred to as the North Sea Empire.
While he was a highly effective King who expanded and united his power base, Canute is probably best know for standing in the sea and commanding the tide to turn.
The tale of Canute and the tide is almost certainly fictitious, yet this story is probably what you think of when you hear the name Canute. But there are two versions of the Canute story.
Variant One
The first variant of the story is maybe the more widely known version.
In this rendering, Canute believed in the divinity of Kings and wanted to prove his divinity. So he stood on the shoreline facing the incoming sea and commanded the tide to turn.
Of course, the tide continued to come in and Canute’s feet got wet.
Variant Two
In the second variant of the story, King Canute did not believe in the divinity of Kings. Instead, he wanted to prove to his courtiers that he was—like them—just a man, and not a divine being.
To prove his assertion, Canute stood on the shoreline and commanded the incoming tide to turn. His courtiers expected the sea to react since it was being commanded by a divine being.
However, Canute was not a divine being, which he proved when his feet got wet.
Overlaps
Both myths have common elements:
- Canute commanded the tide to turn back,
- but still his feet got wet.
But Canute’s character, his motivations, and his intentions are very different depending on which context you put around the story.
In the first version, Canute is a pompous, self-aggrandizing King. In the second, Canute is a humble man trying to show he had no power to control events.
If we look to the parallels today—whether in politics, as part of the culture wars, or with other tribal behavior—one thousand years after King Canute, facts rarely matter. Indeed, most public arguments use a reframing of the context to make one side look good or the opponents look bad.
Until June
That’s me until June. Please do take care if you go anywhere near the incoming tide.
Until next month.
All the best
Simon