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| I've been writing this
webpage for a number of years now and although I've written about any
number of topics I don't think I've ever tried to correct a historic
injustice before. But this time around I'm going to try to do just this
and hopefully pass on a bit of knowledge in the process. A few weeks back I was talking about somebody at work who was trying to do something futile ( I can't remember what it was) and much to my own annoyance I started comparing him to King Canute trying to turn the tide. Why to my own annoyance? Because I know that the popular version of Canute and the tide is untrue. The story is usually interpreted as an example of somebody who is so full of himself that he actually believes he can control the elements. I know this to be wrong. We have to go back to my formative years for the source of my knowledge. You may find this hard to believe but I wasn't always the wild living rock'n'roll IT professional that you see before you today. No I was quite a shy retiring scholarly child. Nowadays I go to work without a coat and all sorts of rebellious things. But back then I preferred to stay at home with my nose stuck in a book. With our limited supply of books at home running out (I had to resort to reading a recipe book at one point) and the library inconveniently faraway my parents remembered the set of encyclopedias that some silver tounged salesman had sold them. I was soon devouring them. They were very much of their time and aimed at the sort of kids that Enid Blyton wrote about but I loved them. My favourite was the volume dedicated to English history which gave a child's view of events from the Roman invasion up to the Second World War and slightly beyond. Anyway there was a good section on the history of Britain between the Romans leaving and the Norman conquest. This mainly concerned the arrival of the Angles & Saxons and the subsequent issues with Vikings - particular mention was given to the time when King Alfred burnt the cakes. I have similar issues with the toaster - once through is never enough but once you put the bread down for a second spell you have to keep your eyes on it. Anyway King Canute (also known as Cnut - I hope the spelling checker doesn't try to correct that) was a Viking king who ruled most of Scandanavia as well as a good portion of England. In his time he was a well respected man although you didn't get to be a King in those days by being a nice guy or a pacifist. He was also known for his wisdom and that's where the whole tide thing comes in. It appears that Canute had a few brown nosers in his court who were always going on about how great he was. So to point out to them that there were limits to his power he demonstrated to them that even he had no control over the elements and he demonstrated this by attempting to command the tide not to come in. Unsurprisingly he failed miserably. The rest is history but unfortunately the interpretation is not as Canute had hoped. Of course its all well and good me telling you this. But the issue of course is that there will be some occasion when you are talking about some idiot and you want to demonstrate the stupidity of what they are attempting to do by use of a historical metaphor. The question is if not Canute who are you going to use? **
This month's musical tip for you is a local record label - Clue Records. I don't know much about the label except that its Leeds based with maybe some Wakefield links. Currently they are home to three bands -Allusondrugs, Narcs, Forever Cult - all of which I would heartily recommend as live acts. Most recently we caught Forever Cult supporting Spring King at the Belgrave Music Hall. They are a grungy trio with some good riffs and tunes. Click on the logo below to go to the site for more details including some free downloads.  |
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