King Canute couldn’t order back the tides. That does not mean he shouldn’t have tried.
The other day I got into a discussion with a conservative acquaintance who commented that my standing in the way of Trump and the inevitable repeal of he ACA put me in the place of King Canute trying to order back the tide. I felt that he deserved a better answer than I could give at the time, and this is it.
The story, as it’s generally now told, is that King Canute (Knut the Great, 995-1035 CE) went to the seaside and tried to order back the tide. He failed, of course, and was forced to acknowledge that there was a power greater than him. But as the story originally said (at least as it was first recorded in the twelfth century) Canute was a pious man who went to the shore with the intent of demonstrating that no mere king had the power to command the works of God. Which he did.
(Perhaps the story was changed to belittle Canute, who was a Dane and thus an immigrant among the Britons.)
In any case, the story is almost certainly apocryphal and has no news value since someone made it all up.
But if I were making up this story, I’d tell it a bit differently. In my version, Canute orders one of his solders to stand at the water’s edge and face the tide, and not to move until ordered to do so. Canute then roars at the ocean, ordering it to withdraw or face his wrath. The ocean, of course, pays no attention. The solder is drowned.
At this point there are several ways you can take the story. You can make it all about the solder, who faced his death with honor (very Klingon, don’t you think?). Or you can have Canute go full Caligula and order his troops to attack the ocean with their swords, and after a lot of splashing about declare a victory and order his troops to gather seashells as “tribute” from his preferred defeated deity (thus making the story The Madness of King Canute). Or here’s a good one...Canute is destroyed by guilt over the loss of the solder’s life and flees to a monastery, and spends the rest of his life as a penitent doing the sackcloth-and-ashes bit.
But my story wouldn’t be about either Canute of the solder that died in the surf. My story would be about a witness, someone who watched Canute’s spectacle and came away with Canute’s message of unchanging inevitability, but later found enough of a reason to stand against an incoming tide (any incoming tide) and drew inspiration from the story of that solder on Canute’s beach, and stood their ground...knowing that even in failure they might inspire the one who might one day win out against overwhelming odds. And maybe if enough people believed likewise the tide would change...as, eventually, tides must.
(At this point I should observe that simply waiting for change is certainly a viable option...but if people are going to die, then standing against the incoming tide becomes a moral act.)
The thing about the tide is that it always goes out just as swiftly as it comes in. You can either wait for it to change, letting yourself be carried by forces you do not control, and hope that wherever you end up will be better, or you can stand your ground.
You might think this last a foolish, pointless gesture, and maybe it is, but maybe not. You’ve certainly heard of Canute’s erroneous legacy, but just because “everyone knows” a thing, that doesn’t make it so...perhaps you can turn the tide. And perhaps not, but there may be someone else willing to stand against it, maybe a lot of someones, and your defiance might give them the courage to try.
You might think you have to keep swimming to keep your head above water, but sometimes drowning is preferable to being carried along with the tide.
The Blues Viking
The opinions expressed here are mine and if you don’t like them you can get your own damn blog.
King Canute on Wikipedia
King Canute and the waves on Wikipedia
The title of this article refers to Tim Powers’ novel On Stranger Tides rather than the Pirates of the Caribbean movie that was loosely based on the book. The book didn't have Jack Sparrow in it. It's well worth a read.
On Stranger Tides on Wikipedia
On Stranger Tides on Amazon.com
The other day I got into a discussion with a conservative acquaintance who commented that my standing in the way of Trump and the inevitable repeal of he ACA put me in the place of King Canute trying to order back the tide. I felt that he deserved a better answer than I could give at the time, and this is it.
The story, as it’s generally now told, is that King Canute (Knut the Great, 995-1035 CE) went to the seaside and tried to order back the tide. He failed, of course, and was forced to acknowledge that there was a power greater than him. But as the story originally said (at least as it was first recorded in the twelfth century) Canute was a pious man who went to the shore with the intent of demonstrating that no mere king had the power to command the works of God. Which he did.
(Perhaps the story was changed to belittle Canute, who was a Dane and thus an immigrant among the Britons.)
In any case, the story is almost certainly apocryphal and has no news value since someone made it all up.
But if I were making up this story, I’d tell it a bit differently. In my version, Canute orders one of his solders to stand at the water’s edge and face the tide, and not to move until ordered to do so. Canute then roars at the ocean, ordering it to withdraw or face his wrath. The ocean, of course, pays no attention. The solder is drowned.
At this point there are several ways you can take the story. You can make it all about the solder, who faced his death with honor (very Klingon, don’t you think?). Or you can have Canute go full Caligula and order his troops to attack the ocean with their swords, and after a lot of splashing about declare a victory and order his troops to gather seashells as “tribute” from his preferred defeated deity (thus making the story The Madness of King Canute). Or here’s a good one...Canute is destroyed by guilt over the loss of the solder’s life and flees to a monastery, and spends the rest of his life as a penitent doing the sackcloth-and-ashes bit.
But my story wouldn’t be about either Canute of the solder that died in the surf. My story would be about a witness, someone who watched Canute’s spectacle and came away with Canute’s message of unchanging inevitability, but later found enough of a reason to stand against an incoming tide (any incoming tide) and drew inspiration from the story of that solder on Canute’s beach, and stood their ground...knowing that even in failure they might inspire the one who might one day win out against overwhelming odds. And maybe if enough people believed likewise the tide would change...as, eventually, tides must.
(At this point I should observe that simply waiting for change is certainly a viable option...but if people are going to die, then standing against the incoming tide becomes a moral act.)
The thing about the tide is that it always goes out just as swiftly as it comes in. You can either wait for it to change, letting yourself be carried by forces you do not control, and hope that wherever you end up will be better, or you can stand your ground.
You might think this last a foolish, pointless gesture, and maybe it is, but maybe not. You’ve certainly heard of Canute’s erroneous legacy, but just because “everyone knows” a thing, that doesn’t make it so...perhaps you can turn the tide. And perhaps not, but there may be someone else willing to stand against it, maybe a lot of someones, and your defiance might give them the courage to try.
You might think you have to keep swimming to keep your head above water, but sometimes drowning is preferable to being carried along with the tide.
The Blues Viking
The opinions expressed here are mine and if you don’t like them you can get your own damn blog.
King Canute on Wikipedia
King Canute and the waves on Wikipedia
The title of this article refers to Tim Powers’ novel On Stranger Tides rather than the Pirates of the Caribbean movie that was loosely based on the book. The book didn't have Jack Sparrow in it. It's well worth a read.
On Stranger Tides on Wikipedia
On Stranger Tides on Amazon.com
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment